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…

With a sigh, Sasuke allowed himself to drop into a ready stance. His opponent mirrored his actions with a cocky smirk, the Inuzuka's dog barking loudly in support of its friend.

"Don't think that you're going to win this, Sasuke," taunted Kiba, his voice arrogant but friendly. "You may have kept ahead of us all by a hair's length while we were at the academy, but I've really grown since I became a Genin."

"Have you?" asked Sasuke with a hint of a smirk on his face. Though as Naruto had shown, it was possible for someone with no notable prowess as a Shinobi to improve pretty dramatically in a small amount of time, but he really doubted that the long-haired boy in front of him could have increased in skill as exponentially as Naruto had. That being said, he would never tell his blond-haired teammate that.

"You'd be surprised," snorted Kiba. "If you don't come at me with everything, I can't guarantee that you're not going to look bad in front of your team," concluded Kiba as he indicated to where Sakura and Kakashi stood next to his own team on the sidelines.

One of the key questions that had arisen at the beginning of the day when the two teams had met up, was where Naruto was, and Team Eight had been informed that he was suffering from mild chakra exhaustion after having performed some hefty jutsus the prior day. While Kiba had scoffed at how pathetic the blond was, Sasuke and Sakura had shared a look saying that if the Inuzuka had seen just what Naruto had done, the feral boy likely would have soiled his pants.

What none of the Genin knew, however, was that the whole story about Naruto having chakra exhaustion was just a cover that Jiraiya and Kakashi had concocted. The real reason being that Naruto was absent because he had been told that by permitting the fox to allow such a surge of chakra into Naruto's network, they needed to make sure that the seal hadn't been damaged at all from the inside. This also meant that Naruto couldn't do anything overly strenuous, as it might agitate the seal even more. If everything turned out to be fine, then they could conclude that the seal wouldn't be breaking anytime soon, and Jiraiya could start teaching Naruto how to better harness the power that the Biju supplied him with.

"Trust me, if you don't come at me with everything then I probably won't have to show you more than half my strength," said Sasuke with his usual cocky attitude.

"Hah, you've always been a bad bluffer, Sasuke," Kiba chortled before raising his right hand in a beckoning motion. "Now we've wasted enough time. Let's see if you've actually got a bite to back up that bark of yours."

Sasuke needed no invitation as he rapidly closed the gap between him and the other boy, using his superior speed to smash a fist into Kiba's gut. Contrary to what Sasuke had expected, Kiba didn't double over, and managed to stay on his feet - albeit with a slight wheeze. Before the Uchiha had a chance to adjust, the dog-like boy snapped a knee up and connected with Sasuke's chest.

He hadn't expected the cockier boy to pack that much of a punch, but Sasuke paid it no mind as he used the momentum from the Kiba's attack to backflip away and regain his breath. Just as he was about to charge back at his sparring partner, he noticed Akamaru making a wild charge for him.

The dog was fast, but so small that sidestepping it was almost trivial. As he prepared to turn his attention back towards Kiba, he noticed that said Genin had already taken advantage of the distraction and was coming at him with a wild punch. Having seen it in the knick of time, Sasuke managed to raise an arm up to block it, and kicked himself off Kiba's thigh, once again granting him a bit of breathing space.

However, what the Uchiha had failed to notice, was that Akamaru had been behind him, and he paid for it dearly, as the mutt's sharp teeth sunk into his left calf. Cursing, as he hadn't expected to shed the first blood of the match, Sasuke kicked it up a notch as he lashed out with his foot. Though he wanted to take the time to admire his handiwork as he heard the resulting yelp from the dog, landing a few yards away from the two Shinobi, he couldn't, since he noticed the Inuzuka boy up in his face yet again.

'They're double-teaming me,' thought Sasuke dryly. It was a fairly obvious tactic, one which wouldn't work against anyone for too long, but Sasuke found himself struggling to do much about it. He had the option of resorting to lethal force but that was hardly appropriate given that it was a mere spar.

Closing his eyes for a second, acutely aware of the incoming attack from the approaching Kiba, he exhaled loudly. His eyes opened a moment later, his irises a bloody red as two tomeo each circled a pupil. With his Sharingan activated, it was easy to figure out that the Inuzuka was attempting a feint, and so, in the brief time period between the fake punch that the feral boy threw and the kick he attempted, Sasuke shoved him backwards and forced him to lose his balance. Being a rather sturdy person, the sudden loss of weight caught Kiba by surprise, and he was left defenceless as the Uchiha unleashed a quick flurry of punches.

Akamaru once again made his way towards Sasuke, but a furious bark gave the element of surprise away, and Sasuke tossed a shuriken at it which halted the puppy in its tracks. He noticed motion at the edges of his vision, and turned back towards Kiba - surprised to see that the boy was gone.

A tense second later, Sasuke spotted the boy making a beeline for his dog. Unsure of what exactly the Inuzuka was attempting, having seldom gotten to opportunity to witness the boy's techniques, he watched with mild curiosity as the white animal was scooped up and quickly slipped something from Kiba's pocket. With no small amount of disbelief, Sasuke stared as the dog's fur turned red.

"This has been fun but I'm afraid we're going to have to take this seriously now," smirked Kiba as he placed the dog on top of his head and flashed through a few hand seals. "Shikyaku no Jutsu!"

The boy sank down on his two legs and leaned forward slightly, almost giving up his bipedal status. Expecting Kiba to come charging at him, Sasuke braced himself but was once again surprised to see him forming more hand seals instead. "Heh, you shouldn't have let me get so far this easily… Jūjin Bunshin!"

With a small puff of smoke, Akamaru transformed into an almost exact replica of Kiba and sprang off the boy. Realising that the disguised dog was advancing and that his movements were unsteady - more feral than those of his partner's - Sasuke leapt forward and attempted to knock the dog aside. His blow was easily dodged, and the Uchiha fled from his spot - Kiba no doubt rising up to attack and clobber him from the back.

With a few seconds of breathing time, the Uchiha smirked as he deactivated his Sharingan. He couldn't afford to use up more chakra than necessary with what he was planning. "That's an impressive trick, but don't think that you're the only one with an ace up your sleeve."

"What are you going to do?" taunted Kiba with a chuckle. "Toss a fireball at me? Copy one of my Jutsu?" In the case of the latter, Kiba was undoubtedly far more experienced in the use of his familial Jutsu than the Uchiha in front of him was.

"No," smirked Sasuke as he lowered his voice to a whisper, "Kage Bunshin."

Sure enough, a replica of Sasuke that would've made Naruto proud appeared next to the Uchiha, showered in puffy smoke. "Let's even the stakes a little."

"With a clone?" Kiba shook his head, Sasuke had clearly misunderstood. "Sorry to break it to you but Akamaru here isn't an illusion, he can actually hurt you."

Sasuke resisted the urge to smirk and he was sure that his Shadow Clone had to as well. Noting that he'd have to be a little more careful now that he couldn't use his Sharingan to distinguish between man and beast, Sasuke advanced, eager to end the henge on Akamaru before either of the two Kibas were able to land a solid hit on his Shadow Clone. It was times like these that secretly made him envy the infinite chakra battery that Naruto was, Sasuke was almost positive that he couldn't risk making another clone if he wanted this battle to last much longer.

Plus he had a reputation at stake; Naruto would never let him live it down if the blond found out that the best of the class was beaten by a mutt.

Leaping forward, both forms of Sasuke charged at the two versions of Kiba, who put up a countering defence. Their plan was simple: One of the clones would completely vanish as soon as any contact was made and then the one that had walked away unharmed would turn their attention back onto the real Sasuke, and the double-teaming would recommence. Sadly, it was just not meant to be, as both Kibas felt a boot to the chest that knocked the wind out of them. Before either of them could comprehend the situation as to why both of them had been injured, kicks came in from opposite sides knocking both Kiba and Akamaru into one another.

Quickly realising that he needed to buy some time, Kiba reached into his pocket and pulled out a smoke pellet, wasting no time in tossing it into the ground and allowing purple smoke to hide both himself and Akamaru from view as he tried to understand just what had happened.

'There's no way Sasuke could've done that himself.' Kiba pushed his brain for answers, he couldn't allow the mystery to remain unsolved for much longer, as Sasuke would undoubtedly milk it for all it was worth. He quickly smelled the Uchiha and his clone, a stupid tactic no doubt because it wouldn't even matter if he confused them. Unless… 'That's it! The clone, it can somehow hurt us like how Akamaru can hurt him.'

Kiba knew, however, that there was no way the Uchiha had managed to actually clone himself. Sure his clone might be able to deal out damage, but like with any clone Jutsu, a decent hit would do the trick. Thankfully he had figured it out before Akamaru succumbed to another hit and potentially lose his transformation.

Before he could figure out his next move, however, he found the temperature quickly beginning to soar and acted on instinct, as he and Akamaru leapt out of the way just as a giant fireball passed through the smoke cloud. Turning his attention towards Sasuke - or at least he figured it was the real Sasuke - he saw the Uchiha going through several hand seals, and Kiba braced himself for what he assumed would be another fireball of some kind. It simply wasn't meant to be.

"Raiton: Hekireki!" shouted Sasuke as he slammed his hands down on the final seal, small volts of electricity starting to dance within the palms of his hands. Kiba braced himself, not knowing just what Sasuke had planned, before the Uchiha in front of him clapped. With the lightning contained within his hands, however, this was no ordinary clap as a thunderclap sounded out with a deafening roar.

Both Akamaru and Kiba found themselves covering their ears, the sound practically unbearable as Kiba struggled to keep his eyes open. Akamaru was faring far worse, however, as he crawled into a ball on the ground, doing his best to drown out the sound as he whimpered softly. This was all the opening Sasuke's clone needed before he placed the cold sharp edge of a kunai at Kiba's throat.

"This is my win, Kiba," declared Sasuke wondering whether or not the Inuzuka could actually hear him yet.

"Good work you two," stated Kakashi as he closed the distance between them with Sakura by his side. Trailing slightly behind them was Kurenai and the rest of her team.

"Looks like you got me, next time you won't be so lucky," said Kiba as Akamaru returned to his original puppy like state. "Did you have to make that jutsu so damn loud though?"

"It worked, didn't it?" said Sasuke casually as his clone burst into nothingness.

"Anyways, Sasuke, while you're like this, you and I are going to spar for a while longer, see if we can build up your stamina somewhat," said Kakashi, wanting to have this opportunity to continue pushing his students. Considering it was the first time he had seen Sasuke utilise the technique that he had provided him, and in such convincing fashion, he figured that he needed to reevaluate just what the Uchiha could do.

"What do you want me to do, Sensei?" asked Sakura, looking up at the silver haired teacher while Kiba got comforting words from his team for a job well done.

"Considering the vast amount of poisons you will likely be working with, I brought with me some of the more standard ones, along with books describing just what they do to the human body, that you will likely come across in a bag near the river," said Kakashi, pointing towards the water source. "I want you to begin injecting yourself with minute amounts of these poisons in order to start building up immunities just in case anything goes wrong during a fight."

"Got it," said Sakura as she moved towards the river.

"Thank you for your assistance, Kurenai," said Kakashi turning his attention to his fellow Jonin.

"My pleasure. I'm sure Kiba learned a lot from this spar," said Kurenai while placing her hand on the boy's shoulder.

"C'mon, Akamaru, let's go get something to eat then get straight back into training," declared Kiba, not letting his loss lower his determination in the slightest. "Shino, you want to come get something to eat?"

"Thank you for the offer, but I will decline, as I believe that I will use this time to train. Considering you managed to get a spar in, I feel that I may have fallen behind ever so slightly and I will use these few minutes before you resume to catch up on that small gap," said Shino in a stoic tone.

"Suit yourself," said Kiba. "What about you, Hinata? Want to grab some lunch?"

"Actually, I have a meeting with my father and it would be rude of me to be late," said Hinata. "If you will excuse me." Bowing slightly, Hinata began to walk away from her team, and while Kiba and Shino thought nothing of it, Kurenai couldn't help but focus her eyes on the retreating girl. When she had picked up Hinata this morning, she hadn't been informed of any meeting that Hinata had to attend, which made her question the girl's statement. But if she wasn't going home, then just where was she going?

...

Sakura sighed as she looked around the lake, her feet soaking in the cool water. She glanced at her left arm, a small gash visible from where a poisoned senbon had come into contact with her skin a few moments ago. Having read up on a few basic poisons, she had found that every single book advised - no, stressed - that the reader build an immunity to whatever poison they were intending on using.

She supposed it made sense, the last thing she would want in the middle of a dangerous mission was to end up pricking herself with a strong toxin and have to compromise it. It was also useful in that, by building up resistances and immunities to certain substances, her immune system would become a little stronger making it less likely for her to become prey to nuisances like the cold. She looked at the small jar of poison which Kakashi had bought from a Ninja store; it was a weak strain of a paralysing toxin that would eventually make it harder for the person to move their muscles.

It wasn't much, and she had used slightly less than the suggested amount, but being a novice in the field Sakura didn't want to rush things. She would much rather take things slowly at her own comfortable pace than rush ahead wildly - that was more Naruto's domain. Twirling the glass jar in her fingers, she admired the finesse of the blob-filled, green, gooey liquid that made up the volume of the jar. She hoped that someday in the future she would learn how to make her own poisons, as the ones sold at Ninja stores were standard as best. Rare and more interesting ones weren't often available at stores. She supposed on one end they also needed to keep an eye out for rookie Genin like her, who were too eager to get their hands on some cool equipment; likely why the store she had visited didn't stock any deadly strains. While she had gotten the very basics of poison making down, it still took time and money to purchase the ingredients needed so buying the products in store was actually cheaper and easier. That being said with their stock so limited she imagined if she encountered another person wielding poison it would be of a same variety as her own until she could better use the tools and ingredients at her disposal.

She admired the serenity of the place... with Naruto confined to his bed and Sasuke continuing his training with Kakashi, she got some much needed alone-time. Flexing her hand slightly, the girl was surprised to find that she could still move it with relative ease. She could feel that the poison had entered her bloodstream and it left her with a slightly queasy feeling but it appeared to not be hindering her movement. Perhaps she should've stuck with the suggested amount, the weak strain wouldn't have done all that much to her anyway and now it was almost certainly going to take longer to kick in.

With a sigh, Sakura pushed chakra to the soles of her feet and stood up on the surface of the water. Though she was sure that she could still walk to exercise her chakra reserves, the girl opted to simply stand still because drowning in the body of water didn't sound too appealing to her. By staying in shallow water, at least she'd be safe.

And so Sakura allowed her mind to drift off as she focused on staying afloat, lest she fall in and drench herself. Being wet and paralysed didn't sound too nice either.

...

Sasuke sighed in relief as he dropped to the ground. They'd barely been going for half an hour but he was exhausted as all hell.

"Tired already?" asked Kakashi as he stepped in front of Sasuke. "Strange, I would've sworn you had more stamina than that."

Taking a second to catch his breath, Sasuke responded, "I-I do."

"Then why are we on the ground?"

"Not sure," panted Sasuke as he climbed back onto his feet. Gently massaging his forehead, he looked up to the masked Jounin as he waited for the man to come at him with yet another Jutsu.

"Sit back down," instructed Kakashi, a grimmer tone shining through his voice.

"Why? I can go on," said Sasuke as he tried to avoid opening his eyes; they felt horrible - like liquid was oozing out, however the Genin could tell that it wasn't tears that were the problem.

"Just listen to me," spoke Kakashi, "and deactivate your Sharingan. I think you might have overused it."

Sasuke followed the man's command wordlessly, the pain dulling a little bit as he disabled his bloodline. However the boy could not bring himself to open his eyelids, being too afraid that the harsh wind would hurt his sensitive eyes. "This isn't normal, is it?"

"I wouldn't know," replied Kakashi. "The Sharingan I've got essentially leaks chakra since it's a foreign object to the rest of my body. Overuse for me is usually just chakra exhaustion."

"Yeah, I remember that time back in the Wave Country," responded Sasuke, wincing ever so slightly as he took a second-long peek with his right eye. "You were out for quite a while."

"I was," nodded Kakashi. "So for you the Sharingan is less of a cursed blessing, since it's not a liability in that, if you don't have it covered, you'll rapidly exhaust your chakra reserves."

Sasuke was a little surprised to hear that from the masked Jounin. Sure he knew there was a reason that his sensei kept it covered but he hadn't managed to connect the dots and realise that it did such a thing to him. "So… you can't deactivate it then?"

"There's a little reasoning behind all the madness," said Kakashi as he gestured to his face, of which only a tiny fraction was visible between his slanted forehead protector and mask. "Anyway, when you do have it activated it's still going to eat up your chakra, almost no matter what you do."

"I don't remember anyone else from my clan having these issues," said Sasuke, granted he had been but a mere child when he last saw another living Uchiha.

"Many shinobi are proud to boast about their achievements, but few ever tell others about their own weaknesses," stated Kakashi, and Sasuke couldn't help but admit that his sensei had a point. He imagined that once he had actually unlocked his Sharingan, his family would have informed him about potential downsides to have the Doujutsu active, or he would have had to figure it out for himself. "But you're right, the Uchiha were… are a resourceful bunch, and so some of them figured out a way to prevent the Sharingan from being a burden while fighting."

Sasuke's eyebrows peaked with curiosity, "What exactly did this entail?"

"Well, you're not going to like it," said Kakashi, in the detached yet amused voice that Sasuke had become accustomed to.

"I'll deal with it," said Sasuke as he gently massaged his eyes with his fingertips. "Besides, it can't be much worse than this."

Kakashi opened his orange book, reassured that his student was okay, and began to skim through the pages. "You have no idea."

Upon receiving a quizzical look from the boy, he explained. "The pain you're feeling right now is from overuse of the Sharingan. And the only way to make that go away is to get used to it."

"Come again?" asked Sasuke, not quite understanding his sensei's words.

"You need to become more used to and more comfortable with the Sharingan. As such, from tomorrow you're going to keep it activated for as long as you possibly can during the next week."

...

Naruto sat awkwardly within his room, his boredom having reached new peaks. He was well aware of the reason as to why he had been restricted to the confines of his house, and the last thing he wanted was for his tenant to become restless. Yet, he could only imagine just what he would be able to do if he could pull upon the fox's chakra more frequently. While it was probably not recommended to be done on a regular basis, the toad that Naruto had summoned the prior day was proof that it was powerful.

Looking down at his hand, Naruto's mind fell back to the previous day where he had been only able to summon a handful of tadpoles with his own chakra, although he had to admit that after having exhausted his chakra on making hundreds of shadow clones prior to that, he had to be happy he had managed to summon anything at all.

He wondered whether or not he could summon an actual toad, now that his chakra reserves had replenished somewhat. Naruto was well aware that the chances of summoning something as big as Gamaken was unlikely - the surge of power that the fox had given him for that moment was unlike anything he had been able to produce himself.

Looking out the window, Naruto knew that he wouldn't stop trying until he got it; it was just his ninja way.

A knock on the door got Naruto's attention as he looked at the entrance to his apartment. "N...Naruto-kun, are you there?" asked the timid voice of Hinata from the other side, which caused Naruto to cross the distance between the window to the door in less than a second. Opening it up he saw Hinata there, circling her index fingers around one another in a nervous fashion, yet her eyes had a determined look in them.

"Hinata, please come in," said Naruto, waving his hand behind him to allow his guest to enter. Seeing as he hadn't been expecting anybody to visit him, he hadn't bothered to clean up for the better part of the week, simply meaning that his place looked like more of a mess than that time he threw pies at every face he could see at the academy.

"Thank you," she said meekly as she accepted his invitation and stepped in. She looked at the state of Naruto's apartment and though it didn't look very clean, she saw it as an expression of Naruto's personality. This being the first time that she had actually stepped inside Naruto's place, she was surprised to note that it was actually quite nice… once you ignored the mess of clothes and chopsticks that was the couch. "I-I heard you weren't, f-feeling too well so I thought I might make sure you're okay."

"Yeah, I'm a little better now," nodded Naruto as he realised that she must have heard from his team that he was suffering from chakra exhaustion. "It was nice of you to drop by."

"It was the least I-I could do, after you took care of m-me the other day," stuttered Hinata as she thought back to the day where she had fainted.

"What was that about?" Naruto asked harmlessly. He had a sneaking suspicion given the black lines which he had seen sprout all across her skin, but he figured it would be best for Hinata to confirm his thoughts.

"Uhh..." She bit her lip nervously. Was she afraid to tell him? Too weak to even speak the truth, or perhaps it was because she desperately wanted the words that were held back by her tongue to be untrue. Would Naruto-kun hesitate if he were in her position?

"If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine. I just figured that we might still like to go wherever you were planning," said Naruto with a smile.

So he wasn't asking about the wretched seal on her neck? Hinata breathed a deep sigh of relief before a tiny hint of a smile overcame her face. With the seal having been the topic of almost every casual conversation she'd had in the past few days, it was great to talk to someone without having to bring it up. "I-I'd like that."

"So where to?" asked Naruto as he grabbed his orange jacket, which had been sprawled out over the back of his couch.

"I n-never knew where I was g-going to take y-you," confessed Hinata as her face flushed bright red. Now Naruto would almost certainly think she was a weirdo. Who grabbed people like that and lead them somewhere with no destination in mind?

"Heh, that's fine," dismissed Naruto, laughing as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "That offer for ramen still stands, y'know…"

"Let's do it!" Hinata blurted out rather loudly before sighing. Where on Earth had that come from? She'd always had a grip on her emotions and she never randomly yelled out things like that.

"Haha, okay." Naruto chuckled. "We'll go grab a late lunch from there."

Hinata was grateful to hear that, having skipped lunch in order to check up on her crush. "Naruto-kun?" she asked questioningly.

"Yeah?"

"Y-Yesterday, when you were summoning those toads… I watched you do it with my Byakugan, I saw that it wasn't your chakra that you were using."

Naruto swallowed nervously. Had he realised that Hinata could see such a thing he likely never would have used the fox's chakra in the first place. He didn't say anything as Hinata continued.

"I don't know what it was, but it was violent and dark," said Hinata as she rubbed the spot on her neck where Orochimaru had bitten her, a movement that didn't go unnoticed by Naruto. "I… I think I know how it feels, to have something so twisted and evil give you strength. That power… it's intoxicating and it clouds your mind."

"Yeah, I guess it does," said Naruto in confusion. Sure, he'd felt a slight rush with the Kyuubi's chakra but it wasn't all that bad.

They both stared at each other awkwardly for what must have been a few minutes, unsure of how to continue the conversation. On one hand Naruto knew what Hinata was talking about, given that she had her own cursed seal, but on the other there was no way that Hinata could have possibly known about the Kyuubi. Hinata too was lost, afraid that she had overstepped the boundaries of what she should've said when Naruto remained silent.

Suddenly a large rumbling sound tore through the room, and Naruto had the decency to look embarrassed as he rubbed his stomach. "I guess we should probably get lunch then."

A giggle escaped Hinata's lips as the dark aura which had been going through the air was expelled in an instant. "Okay then, let's go," she said as she walked out of the still open door, Naruto following close behind.

…

Author's Notes:

Jutsu Translations:

Shikyaku no Jutsu - Four Legs Technique.

Jūjin Bunshin - Beast Human Clone.

Raiton: Hekireki - Lightning Release: Thunderclap

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