Story until now (summary of last chapter)
Naruto had survived fighting and defeating the two Akatsuki members that were charged with attacking Gaara. While they were at the hospital, we see how Naruto's efforts had formed a small alliance between the jinchuuriki of three different villages, and how Naruto began to train in controlling the power of the fox within him.
The Difference in Power:
Kakashi was walking towards training grounds after staring at the stone where the names of his dead comrades were inscribed for exactly one hour and thirty six minutes. He was asked by the Godaime Hokage to see how much more potential Naruto had for improvement, and how much stronger he could get given the right tutelage. It had been three days since they had returned to Konoha from their rescue mission. The return trip was quite uneventful until they entered the office of their drunken buxom Hokage.
Two Days Ago
"Kakashi-sensei why do we have to talk to baa-chan now? It's really late in the evening and she is probably drunk. She will be really pissed if we bothered her, and I am not in the mood for going through walls right now," replied the blonde jinchuuriki in a disgruntled voice. Kakashi nodded sagely but replied with a firm voice.
"Naruto, we have to turn in the report immediately, this is a mission of the highest class, and as such takes time to process, and you do want your payment as soon as possible don't you? Secondly, we have alliance papers. An actual Shinobi alliance between Suna and Konoha, can you imagine how important these documents are? These have to reach the Hokage's eyes with utmost haste; therefore we have to talk to her no matter what!" Kakashi's reply did not sit well with Naruto as he sped up with the last leg of their journey so that they could get to Konoha a little faster, followed by Kakashi and Sakura. Konoha's gates were closed as night had fallen and Naruto stood in front of it, unsure whether to jump in over the wall or was there a side-entrance into the village for residents and Konoha shinobis. Naruto had been to a lot of Shinobi villages and many of them did not take it lightly if their rules were broken even if the law-breakers were their own. Kakashi finally landed behind the blonde Shinobi and walked up to the gate and knocked three times. A small window in the gate opened and a masked man looked closely at them before asking.
"State your name and purpose!"
"Open the gate already, we have an S-rank mission submission of most urgency," said Kakashi in a bored tone as the masked ninja quickly recognized the fabled Kakashi Hatake due to his signature mask and the gravity-defying silver hair. He gave a short salute before opening a small door that was built inside the huge wall that surrounded Konoha from the main entrance gates. It didn't take long before Naruto was inside the Hokage's office, it looked like he had taken a liking to the way his master always entered the Godaime's office. In came Naruto through the window scaring the blonde Hokage so much that she spilled her sake on her recently completed paperwork after much convincing from Shizune.
"DAMN IT GAKI, DO YOU REALIZE WHAT YOU JUST DID?" shouted Tsunade at the top of her lungs; she did not need to re-do several hours of paper-work again just because one of her ninjas startled her.
"Your sake, your spill, your problem, don't blame me." Naruto replied quite non-chalantly getting on Tsunade's nerves even more. "Plus you can just have one of your clones do it again, now that you know what is on the paper-work, so do your clones, they will know where you needed to sign and stuff, so what is the big deal?" Naruto didn't realize that he had just given Tsunade the perfect way to solve all her paper-work problem, which also simultaneously saved his life as the Hokage cooled down a bit realizing what Naruto had just suggested. The doors to her office opened and Kakashi and Sakura came in, they were already sweating profusely because they had heard the Godaime Hokage's shout and did not want to face the over powered woman when she was pissed off. Kakashi had first-hand experience of Sakura's strength and he knew that Tsunade's was greater still, where as Sakura knew how much Tsunade's punches hurt, especially when she was mad, none of them wanted to go through that when they were tired and returning from a mission that was quite difficult and the return trip was very exhausting. Kakashi hesitantly stepped forward and started talking in a very meek and humble voice.
"Hokage-sama, the mission was a complete success; in fact the Kazekage was so pleased with our performance that he has asked for a complete Shinobi alliance between Konoha and Suna. Here are the documents for the alliance with the Kazekage's personal seal on it, and here is the already completed mission report, everything is in full details so that you can assess our performance accordingly." Kakashi put an emphasis on the word performance and Tsunade got the message that he had done his part in observing and mentioning where he thought Naruto stood skill-wise and how well he worked as a team. Tsunade's eyes grew wide at the copy ninja's words, she had been trying to do exactly that for nearly two years now but had been unsuccessful and it hadn't even been two weeks since Naruto's return, and it was Suna asking for the alliance! She snatched the documents off his hand before he decided to throw it on the wet desk and quickly scanned it confirming Kakashi's words that these were indeed the government papers required to start a Shinobi alliance between two villages.
"Baa-chan, can we go now? It is a beautiful evening and I still haven't had an actual tour of the village! Don't you think it's about time I got acquainted with the place where I will spend the rest of my life?" whined Naruto in the most annoying voice he could make, it definitely had an effect because the response was immediate.
"Yes, fine get lost! Sakura please show Naruto around the village and don't allow him to do something that will get him in prison or in trouble with the clans. You two are dismissed. Hatake you and I have to talk. Sakura send Shizune in on your way out will ya?" she heard a faint 'Hai' as the doors to her office closed behind her. A few moments later Shizune came in, her expression said she knew what she needed to do as she set Tonton down on the floor and pulled out a note pad and a pen. "Alright Kakashi, how did he handle himself? Shizune write everything down and put it under his file, this is the first mission report we are getting on him" ordered Tsunade as she pulled out the bottle and poured herself another cup, making sure that the window was closed securely.
Kakashi thought for a moment before sighing loudly. "Hokage-sama, this might not come as a surprise to you, but Naruto is a ninja of exceptional potential, even without the Kyuubi. I do not know whether it comes because he is an offspring of two very strong blood lines or because he is a genius of such caliber that Konoha has not witnessed before. I have to say that whatever he lacks in experience ha makes up with sheer skill and raw strength. In fact, I saw him use nin-jutsu, and fuuinjutsu that I have never seen before. If I was any less educated in the art of sealing, I might have thought it was something else entirely, because I have never seen sealing used in such a destructive manner before, I don't know if even Jiraiya-sama is capable of something like that," Kakashi's reply again put Tsunade to a turmoil as to where Naruto stood as far as his career as a Shinobi was concerned. At times he looked no different than a normal teenager, but at times his power was just too overwhelming to even think about. This was going to be a bigger hassle than she thought.
"What about team-work Kakashi? Is he a team player, or a solo power-house?" asked Tsunade, hoping that after hearing the answer to this question, she could give him an appropriate rank.
"Well, Hokage-sama it seems he understands the concept of team-work but does not follow it. He had already deduced how we could effectively use each member in taking down the Akatsuki members that we were to face during this mission, but he did not follow through with it. He lost control of his emotions when he realized that Gaara might not be alive and rushed ahead completely disregarding any strategy or plan. He lost his cool," commented the copy-nin. His assessment of Naruto was that he needed a little training in controlling his emotions, and learning how to work in a team, and he could become a very formidable foe to any enemy of Konoha.
"So do you think that he should advance to Jounin, or stay as a Tokubetsu for now?" asked Tsunade, not really knowing where to place him.
"I believe we should keep him where he is right now, I also suggest that he receive Black-ops training, his skill in espionage is already very high, and with proper training I believe he can become someone like me or even Itachi Uchiha," replied Kakashi in a thoughtful voice, yes Naruto was not a cooperative ninja, but with his potential it was not necessary that he has to be in a team. He can do a great deal alone; any ninja with high potential went through ANBU training before achieving the rank of Jounin. He himself did along with many of the other Jounins in Konoha right now.
"Hmm," said Tsunade as she placed her hand on her chin and thought about what the white-fang's legacy had just suggested. "Well, there is no way I am sending Naruto to Danzo for his training and Jiraiya is not here. Why don't you take over Naruto's black-pos training? After all you were trained by his father, it should not take you long to understand what his strengths are and how to improve on his weaknesses, right?" asked the Godaime Hokage, for now it was the perfect solution, plus he was a part of team seven now if anybody had the first call at teaching Naruto, it was Kakashi.
"Hokage-sama, can I reply to your question tomorrow? In all seriousness, I know very little about him, and if I am to train him, it will take me a little time to understand how he works, and if I am the right person for him." Kakashi replied to the Hokage in a serious tone.
"Okay, return tomorrow evening and we will discuss what to do with Naruto then. For now you are dismissed," said the Hokage as she poured herself another cup of sake.
With Naruto and Sakura (Two Days ago)
As Naruto followed Sakura out of the Hokage's office, Shizune hurried past them to see why Tsunade had asked for her. "So Sakura, would you care to show me around town? I don't think I have yet been to the markets on the western side of town and I haven't even gotten a good look at the village itself!" Naruto exclaimed the last part out as he realized himself just how little of Konoha he had actually seen.
"Of course Naruto, by the way don't you want to eat dinner first?" asked Sakura, she was really hungry after the long trip back from Suna, and was quite tired of eating the dry food that they always got while on the road for a mission. Since the time she had seen Naruto with Temari, she had been thinking about her reaction to the whole thing. She had been unnaturally upset after finding out that Naruto and Temari shared a relationship that went well beyond friendship, if what she had seen was anything to go by. But when she questioned herself as to why she was so disturbed, she couldn't answer that question to herself. Finally, she came to the realization that it wasn't Naruto to blame if he liked Temari, after all they knew each other better than Naruto knew the kunoichis from Konoha. She had thrown her anger and awkwardness away and had been acting normal and friendly with Naruto again, hoping that her odd feelings would go away with time and they would hopefully become good friends and teammates. Sai wasn't exactly what most people would call normal, maybe Naruto could fulfill what team seven had been missing the whole time.
"That's a good idea Sakura!" chirped Naruto, now that he thought about it, he was quite hungry.
"Well then follow me, I know just the place where you might get a good but quick dinner," said Sakura as she skipped down the stairs and took to the rooftops, seeing if she could out speed the blonde ninja. It was a vain effort, Naruto it seemed caught up to her with ease and had no difficulty keeping with her. Well, he was a Jounin for a reason. They came to stop in front of a small ramen shop that read 'Ichiraku Ramen'. "We used to come here a lot you know, whenever Kakashi sensei decided to give us a treat, he would bring us here. I love this place, not because of the food, but because of the good times and memories that I have with this place," said Sakura with a far-away look on her face, remembering the times when she came here with Kakashi sensei, Sasuke-kun, and Sai.
"Well, I think it's perfect, after all Ramen is my favorite food," said Naruto striding in with a huge smile on his face. He immediately took a seat in one of the counter seats, and Sakura slid into the one next to his. Sakura spied that Shino Aburame was sitting at the far corner seat of the counter and beckoned him over. Not many people knew it but Sakura used to like Shino as a class mate back at the academy. He was one of the people who did not make fun of her forehead, and he was one of the few men who always showed proper respect to everyone. Seeing, as he had nothing much better to do in his current position, he slid into the seat on the other side of Naruto. His kikai bugs had said that the blonde was more powerful than all the rookie-nine, and he was intrigues as to what type of jutsus and skills this blonde boy possessed, that made him such a strong Shinobi. He didn't know if the Uzumaki had any Kekkei Genkai, but since they were not a clan, he was quite sure that this boy did not have one.
"Hello Naruto Uzumaki, Haruno-san. Good evening," greeted Shino, many would mistake his husky monotonous voice as boredom, but if they knew the Aburame, they all sounded like they were bored, like the Nara clan but while the Nara clan is actually bored, the Aburame clan had a tendency to hide all emotion behind an expressionless facade.
"Hey what's up, you are Shino from the Aburame clan right?" when Shino confirmed it by nodding slightly, Naruto continued. "What kind of bugs do you use, you guys have special breeds right?"
"You are absolutely right Uzumaki, we indeed have special breeds that can work based on our somatotypes and immune systems. The breed I use is known as the Kikaichu, specializing in data gathering and chakra draining. Useful in both combat and infiltration, due to this ability, I was one of the ninjas that made it out of the ANBU training with the highest scores, only seconded be Sai of team seven I believe," replied the Aburame, as Teuchi placed a steaming bowl of ramen in front of Shino. He swiftly pulled out a notebook from one of the pockets in his apron and pencil.
"Miss Haruno, it has been a while since you have come by, what can I get for you today?" he asked in a mild and friendly tone as they both smiled at each other.
"Why, Teuchi-san I will take the usual ramen with beans and chicken, no tomatoes please," said Sakura in a tone that said she had ordered the same dish lots of time before. Teuchi noted her order down quickly before turning to Naruto.
"And what would you like sir? Have we by chance met before, I think I have seen you somewhere," wondered Teuchi, trying to remember why the teen in front of him looked so familiar. Naruto looked up from the menu; he had been quickly scanning it while Teuchi was taking his Sakura's orders.
"I don't think we have met before Teuchi-san. I will take an extra-large bowl of miso-ramen, with extra beef please," said Naruto, he loved miso-ramen, even though Jiraiya constantly complained about how bad Ma Shima's cooking was. Naruto never had a problem with her cooking until he realized just how good humans were at cooking. He never complained though, it was really kind that Ma Shima always thought of him and tried to make food that were edible by humans. Teuchi nodded, noted down his ordered and hurried back inside the kitchen. "Wow, even though this place is small, it must be popular!" thought Naruto out loud, almost every table and chair was taken and there was a small line forming outside, as people were ready to wait outside for Ichiraku's ramen.
"Ya, you know three years ago there was nothing here but a stall that said Ichiraku Ramen. But people loved his ramen and soon his stall became extremely famous, Now look at it, it is a bustling restaurant!" said Sakura, she giggled at the expression Naruto had on; it was a mix between incredulous and unbelievable.
"It is hard to believe but I guess my master's words were not wrong, there is nothing that can't be achieved with hard work," said Naruto with a smile.
"Uzumaki-san, you have trained under Jiraiya-sama for your whole life, what are some of the things that you learned during your training?" Shino's blatant question made Naruto raise an eye-brow. Asking a ninja what jutsus he learned was like asking a magician to reveal the means behind his tricks.
"Well, Jiraiya-sama only taught me the basics of any form of jutsu, I was mostly trained by the sages of Mount Myoboku; the only things Jiraiya taught me are the tactical things, like strategies and coordination. He didn't teach me every jutsu I know or every kata I learned. Jutsu-wise he only taught me two jutsus," said Naruto as he looked at Shino, who had a big question mark for an expression.
"What were these two jutsus that you speak of?" asked Shino finally when he saw no answer forthcoming from his blonde, and now uncomfortable, colleague.
"Err, um, well one of them is called the Rasenshuriken, and the other is well everything I know about Fuuinjutsu, I learned from him," said Naruto, and Shino raised an eye brow quite comically. A very attractive young woman in an apron came and put a receipt in front of Shino, and smiled at Sakura before disappearing into the kitchen again. While Shino was pulling out his wallet, Naruto nudged Sakura's arm. "Who was that?" asked Naruto as she saw Sakura's questioning expression turn onto a smirking one.
"Why that was Ayame, Teuchi-san's only daughter and the village's heartthrob," said Sakura with a grin that reached from ear to ear. Shino put the appropriate amount of money down, before nodding to Naruto and leaving. A very red Naruto nodded back, he did not mean to ask because he thought she was cute, he just asked because…well she was really cute! "I think she is only a couple years older than us," continued Sakura, much to her delight at seeing her blonde-teammates uncomfortable situation. Ayame came in carrying both Naruto's and Sakura's orders, and placed it in front of them.
"Well Sakura, care to introduce your new friend to me?" asked Ayame with a sly grin on her face.
"Oh Ayame, I was just telling Naruto here about you," chirped Sakura as she picked up her chop-sticks. Sakura stood up and put her mouth near Ayame's left ear. "Don't bother trying to flirt with him, he is already booked," whispered Sakura. Ayame did the same and whispered back.
"Well duh, have you looked at him, he is like the most irresistible guy I have seen in my life!" she whispered back and they both started giggling silently. Naruto just stared at them, but waited patiently, it was considered rude to start eating before your companion, especially a female companion, if you have come to have a meal with her. Sakura sat back down, and then motioned towards the food so they could start eating. It didn't take Naruto more than a minute to finish his extra-large bowl before he ordered for another one. Sakura was quite surprised by the young-man's appetite. He had six extra large bowls of miso-ramen and he was still thinking about whether to have dessert or not! Now that she thought about it he was a really big man physically. He was well over six feet tall, and had a very heavy-set and muscular build, Ino really lacked common-sense, she actually challenged Naruto to a duel! What was she thinking?
"Sakura, I have noticed since coming to Konoha that you are quite popular, and one of the best combat-medics, what does that mean?" asked Naruto making Sakura blush a little at the compliment.
"Well a combat-medic is just what it sounds to be, a medic who can be put out on the field because he/she knows how to fight," replied Sakura, and Naruto's eyes grew wide.
"Wow that means you are twice as useful as any other ninja on the field that is very impressive, no wonder everyone seems to like you so much," said Naruto again, and this time Sakura was suspecting that he wanted to more than just compliment her.
"What are you exactly trying to ask Naruto?" she had caught him; he was trying to know more about her, specifically her love life.
"Oh, nothing nothing. I just wanna know more about my teammate; after all we are going to be working on missions and stuff together. I just want to know what kind of person you are," he replied too fast for her to believe he was being completely truthful.
"Well I am not exactly popular," said Sakura, making the quotation marks with her fingers when she said 'popular'. "But I have been here for a long time, and I practically grew up with the Rookie nine so we all know each other very well. If I have to say Ino is probably the most popular girl among us. Shinobis and civilians alike are dying to date her but look at her, she goes for the weirdest ninja in the whole rookie nine Sai," said the pink haired kunoichi in a voice that said she totally did not understand the blonde girl at all.
"And what about you, who are you dating?" asked Naruto, hoping that the answer would be no one. Sakura stiffened a little at that question, she had not dated any one in her life to be told the truth, and just when Sasuke was starting to warm up to her, the whole thing in the Chuunin exams happened, and then he fought his brother and got horribly injured, pushed him to get away from Konoha. She slowly lowered her chopsticks back to the bowl and looked down.
"No one," she said in a very meek voice.
"Really," said Naruto, it came out a lot more enthusiastic than he had intended it to be. It brought Sakura out of her musings, the way Naruto answered sounded like he was pleased with her answer. Deciding to find out what was truly his motive, she tried to test him a little.
"Naruto are you trying to ask me out? I can't believe you would actually do that with the whole thing going on between you and Temari!" she said in a very annoyed voice.
"WHAAAT? What are you talking about? There is nothing going on between me and…you saw her kissing me in the hospital haven't you?" asked Naruto in a lot quieter voice, as he realized why Sakura was acting all weird that day in the hospital. When Sakura nodded, he started to smile; it could mean that maybe, just maybe, she had taken a liking to him? When Sakura looked up she was surprised to see Naruto smiling.
"What's so funny?" she asked starting to get annoyed again.
"Well, the massive misunderstanding is just ridiculous! Yes it is true that I love Temari, but not like that, more like an older sister. I have hung out with Gaara a lot when we were younger and became almost like family. Temari was like an older sister to both of us trying to keep us out of trouble when we pulled pranks together on the Kazekage, she used to always give out false indications that led the trail to someone else, mostly Kankuro. Back then he used to be so clueless that we made jokes about what kind of Shinobi he would turn out to be. Here, I will let you in on a secret about her. From what I know about her, she is in head over heels for that Nara guy I fought," said Naruto in a hushed voice. Sakura nodded slowly, everybody in Konoha knew that Temari and Shikamaru was an item.
"So there is nothing going on between you and her." Sakura stated more than asked, to herself.
"Nope nothing at all!" confirmed Naruto back to his usual energetic self, and Sakura felt a sensation of relied spread through her oddly enough.
"So Sakura, since I had a really nice dinner, why not just have dessert to complete it, eh? What would you like to have?" he asked her as he indicated the dessert section in the menu with his index finger.
"Hmm, Ayame I think I will have the medium-sized strawberry and chocolate milkshake," said Sakura, and Ayame noted it down; she was ready to take their order.
"I want to try out the multi-flavored sundae, okay?" said Naruto, and Ayame nodded as she also noted his order down and disappeared behind the kitchen doors again.
"So Naruto, where do you want to go after dinner? I was thinking maybe the west side park," asked Sakura, Konoha was a big place with lots of attractions that they could go to.
"Nah, I was thinking about going on top of the Hokage Mountain, you know there is a full-moon today, I don't know why but I like watching the full-moon," said Naruto as he looked at the Hokage-mountain.
'Hmm, a guy who appreciates nature? That's a first for me,' thought Sakura, but hey everybody had their own tastes right, and it is really sweet that he wants to preserve the land he lives on.
"Sure Naruto, I wouldn't mind just relaxing for some time either, tomorrow is going to be a long day of training for both of us, and Tsunade-sama is worse than a slave driver!" said Sakura, and they both burst out laughing. Ayame came back with their dessert and placed it in front of them. "Enjoy! Your bill will be here shortly, do you want separate bills?" asked Ayame, she knew that Sakura always paid for her own food, no matter what guy she came to eat a meal with, unless of course it was her Father. Sakura was about to reply but Naruto beat her to the chase.
"Absolutely not, one bill only thank you," said Naruto in a firm voice, no argument will be tolerated. Ayame did not try to fight either; it was about time Sakura got an actual date.
"Hai," she replied and disappeared before Sakura had a chance to argue about it.
"Naruto you really don't have to," said Sakura.
"Of course I do, this is my treat to you for being such a good friend and teammate to me, you know I never really had friends growing up but being here with you makes me feel accepted, like I truly belong, so please don't stop me," said Naruto, this time his voice was much more serious and there was a little sadness in his features.
"Well I can totally accept that," said Sakura in a very cheerful voice, trying to dispel the somber mood that had come up suddenly at Naruto's revelation about his own life.
"Yup," said Naruto as he scooped a huge spoonful of ice-cream in his mouth. Sakura also smiled and started sipping on her strawberry-chocolate shake. As usual the dessert was just as good as the ramen, and both companions were content with the choice of their restaurant. Teuchi came carrying the bill and a couple of fortune-cookies, and handed one to each of them before placing the bill on the counter in front of them. Sakura's eyes grew bid at the amount written on it, as did Naruto's. She had always considered this place cheap, but then again she had never seen anyone eat six extra-large bowls in one sitting either.
"Wow, this place is way cheaper than I expected, wow really nice choice Sakura!" exclaimed Naruto happily much to Sakura's disbelief. "Usually I have to pay nearly twice that amount in a regular restaurant for the same quality and quantity of food, this place is great!" he exclaimed as he pulled out his wallet, which was oddly shaped like a toad and put the money down, with a generous tip. They started walking towards the Hokage monument, silently as Kakashi decided that it was about time that they got some privacy, enough watching his new blonde student for one day decided the silver-haired Jounin.
End of Flashback
Kakashi landed in front of the training ground, he had gotten used to having a silent training ground because he never got to train a team again, he usually trained either Sai or Sakura, whenever they got time off. Sakura mostly worked as a medic-nin and was supervising at the hospital, and Sai was well on his way to becoming an ANBU squad-leader, he has also been able to impress Danzo, the much hated leader of the Root division of the prestigious black-operational system. But today was a different story, he could hear the ruckus going on in the training grounds from almost three miles away, and when he got there, he almost wet his pants at the sight before him. There were more than two-hundred Narutos, divided into groups of twenty-five, and each group was doing a different activity.
One group was running laps around the large training fields, one group was walking up and down the trees, using only their feet or hands, one group was meditating, one group was fighting only using Tai-jutsu, one group was practicing with various types of weapons, one group was focusing completely on wind based jutsus, and another was focusing on water-based jutsus. "My god what stamina and this is an impressive amount of chakra pool to even pull off this many clones in the first place!" Kakashi thought as he started to move again towards the many Narutos doing oh so many things at the same time. As Naruto notice Kakashi walking towards them, he held up his hand and all the clones stopped doing what they were.
"All right I think that is enough warm up," muttered Naruto as a huge white cloud covered the training field. When the cloud dissipated, only one Naruto was standing facing Kakashi. "You are late again! I don't even wanna hear your lame excuse, why did you want to meet anyway?" asked Naruto in a little annoyed voice.
"Well, you tell me. I was just thinking that maybe I will get to know you, hang around with you, but judging by the way you have dressed, it shows that you intend to do some serious training," said Kakashi, studying Naruto's body posture. He was standing straight; his well defined arms were folded over his chest. His orange muscle shirt had the symbol of Konoha on the front. He wore dark camouflage pants that were tucked into ninja sandals, and his face wore an expression of defiance.
"Of course I want to train, you can't have a day off if you are a ninja, and you of all people should know that. Jiraiya-sensei was the sensei of your genin group's teacher, I hope you know that!" exclaimed Naruto in a proud voice.
"Yes, I know that. Well if you are so intent on training, why don't you train with me? I have trained Sai and Sakura, and I have also trained Sasuke, before he left. They have all turned out to be strong ninjas. What do you say?" asked Kakashi in a hopeful voice. Naruto thought for a minute before nodding.
"So what do you wanna do first?" he asked as he dropped his arms back to his sides, and his expression changed to an eager one.
"Well first I need to test you," replied Kakashi as he lifted his head band, his Sharingan was already spinning and stopped when it had three tomes.
Naruto groaned visibly, "Everyone is only testing me since the time I stepped foot into the village, why can't you just train me to make me better?" he complained in an irritated tone.
"Well, the Godaime Hokage-sama has told me to take over your training from here on, but if I don't know your weaknesses and strengths personally, how will I train you. This is a simple test, do as I say and you will be fine," assured Kakashi as he pulled out a few shurikens from his pouch. "First I will test your skills in weapons," without warning he threw his shurikens straight at Naruto. In the blink of an eye he had a kunai in his hand, and he blocked all the shurikens that would have hit him directly. "Good reflexes and keeps weapons within easy reach," Kakashi noted down mentally. "All right, now tai jutsu. Come at me with the intent to kill, let's see how good you are in hand to hand combat." Kakashi said, and Naruto put the kunai back in his pouch.
Both combatants ran towards each other at full speed. Naruto looked directly at Kakashi's hands and chest; he knew Might Gai's famous style of looking at the body and predicting the fighter's moves, and not at the fighter's face. He knew Kakashi would have the advantage because of the Sharingan, but he was going to give everything he had. The blonde ninja saw Kakashi's left hand move backwards, that meant he was going to use a roundhouse kick coming from the right, Naruto blocked the kick with both hands before pushing himself off, using the force as leverage to flip over the Jounin's head and land behind him. Wasting no time, Naruto ran at Kakashi using a complex sequence of kicks and punches while the silver haired Shinobi was still looking the other way. Without the Sharingan, Kakashi was able to predict the first two moves, but the type of tai-jutsu Naruto was using was unfamiliar and he got hit in three places before stumbling back to regain even footing with the blonde ninja.
"Humph, unusual katas this is going to be more bothersome than I thought," mumbled Kakashi as he took another stance. This time he saw Naruto taking the lotus-stance. Now this move Kakashi knew, it was Rock Lee's signature move, and it was one of the strongest tai-jutsu moves that Might had in his arsenal. Kakashi had taken extra-precaution to counter this move when he himself was training for his own Chuunin-exam. A small grin split his stoic face behind the mask, Naruto was in for a surprise. Again both ninjas ran at each other full speed, Naruto intended to use his own version of the lotus, which he had developed after he learned the standard form. Kakashi was expecting Naruto to lift him in the air, so he gave an intentional opening, but instead Naruto kicked him in such a way that he started to fly horizontally, parallel to the ground below them. Then Naruto appeared right behind him, wrapped his arms around Kakashi and started spinning. When they had reached the maximum speed, Naruto arched his body backwards, and Kakashi's head impacted the ground with tremendous force. Naruto let go and flipped out as Kakashi kept going for about a few more feet before coming to a stop. His head was buried into the ground and there was about seven-feet long furrowed ground that was formed because of Kakashi's head. His legs were sticking up facing the sky, and he wasn't moving at all.
"Oh crap, maybe I overdid it by using the lotus. Crap, I hope he isn't dead!" thought Naruto as he ran towards the Jounin's inanimate body, but before he reached it, the body poofed out. The blonde Shinobi stopped "It was a clone?" he asked to nobody in particular.
"Of course it was! Did you think I was going to fight you head on after realizing that you were using Katas that I had no idea about? The moment I saw you form that unusual kata before; I made a clone and switched myself out with it. Now I know that was a good move, if I hadn't either I would have a severely broken neck, or I would be dead," came the Jounin's voice from behind Naruto. He turned around to see Kakashi's eyes winked as he smiled behind his mask. "That was one heck of a move Naruto, a very nice touch, this way you are ensuring that your enemy is down for the count. I can't wait to show it to Gai; he will be stunned that I improved one of his best techniques!" Kakashi's face was like that of a kid's in a candy store that was giving out candy for free. "Okay next up is Gen-jutsu, how good are you at casting illusions?"
"Umm, well, I…I can't," he finally answered after hesitating for a few moments. "You see, when Jiraiya-sensei tried to teach me to make images using my mind, it just wouldn't work because the fox's chakra is too volatile and kept messing up my illusion because its chakra constantly mixing with mine. Jiraiya-sensei said that the next best thing is to know how to break out of any genjutsu. I can do that by either creating a clone, and if that's not an option then I straight out attack the opponent by sensing his or her chakra signature, no matter what sense they are trying to mess mine up with, chakra signatures can never lie," said Naruto looking at the ground, he always considered himself weak because his genjutsu in plain simple words 'SUCKED'.
"Ha ha ha, there is nothing to be ashamed of if you can't cast illusions; in fact a lot of Jounins in Konoha have very little Genjutsu training. We only have a handful genjutsu specialists in the village, and the best in Konoha is a Jounin by the name of Kurenai Yuuhi. So you are basically good at recognizing and countering illusions, that's fine too, let's see if you can break out of mine, here look into my eyes," commented Kakashi, but was a little surprised when Naruto was smiling.
"Come on, I know you have already cast one while I was talking and you are behind that tree instead of standing in front of me," said Naruto pointing at the tree a little to the left of the one directly in front of him.
"All right, you are good at recognizing them," said Kakashi as he stepped out from behind the tree and the one in front of Naruto melted away into the ground. "Now, let us see your nin jutsu. What are your affinities?"
"My first elemental affinity is wind, and the second one is water," replied Naruto; he had come to know of his elemental affinities from a very young age as he had completed the basic ninja training at the age of six. Jiraiya had given him a piece of paper and told him to channel a little bit of chakra into it, and the paper was cut into eight pieces. When Naruto turned ten, the Sannin repeated the process, and this time not only were they cut, they were wet as well. Since Naruto had learned of his secondary element, he started practicing and learning jutsus that involved elemental chakra, and since his chakra control was quite good, he had no difficulty in learning the difference between regular chakra, bijuu chakra, elemental chakra, and more recently, nature chakra.
"Hmm, two affinities already, have you tested your chakra recently to see if you have a third one?" asked Kakashi.
"No, but I can still pull off a few Katon jutsus, don't know why but I can, even though I have to work really hard to get them down," explained Naruto. He had never really wondered why, but a part of him always thought it was probably because the fox was sealed inside of him.
"Oh really, which ones?" asked Kakashi, now his interest was piqued, a third element to boot and that too at such a young age, unbelievable!
"I can do the Fireball technique, the Grand Fireball technique, the Fire Dragon technique, and the Fire Lava spit technique," Naruto rolled off the names of all the Katon techniques that he had learned over after trying harder than ever.
"Hmm, well none of them are below C-rank, I am impressed, what about your other elements? How many jutsus do you know?" asked Kakashi, if Fire was his weakest, Kakashi would definitely want to know his strongest.
"Oh Fuuton and Suiton I know too many to just list off, but I can tell you the strongest ones that I know. For wind I know the Rasenshuriken, The fierce wind gale, the typhoon, the wind fan cyclone, and the hundred sword storm. For water I know the Water ball prison, the Wall defense, the Mirage of Waves, the Water Dragon, and I also learned how to actually create mist using nothing but the water and air particles in the environment around me," finished Naruto only to see Kakashi with his jaws on the ground. All of those techniques were either A-rank or S-rank jutsus, and most of them were too chakra consuming to be effectively usable in a real battle. Yet, there were two techniques Naruto mentioned that he did not recognize.
"Naruto what is this Rasenshuriken, and mist how you can just make mist out of nothing?" asked Kakashi a little baffled at the blonde's revelation. He hadn't heard anybody being able to do that…other than the Nidaime Hokage, known legendarily for being the greatest water manipulator in the world.
"Oh the Rasenshuriken is basically mixing Wind chakra into the Rasengan to make it even mo—" Naruto was cut off when Kakashi literally screamed like a little girl.
"WHAT? Y-you were able to combine Nature chakra with the Rasengan? That's impossible, nobody has done that not even the Yondaime Hokage was able to do that!"
"Whoa man control it a bit there, I know, I am the only one who can use that jutsu because I haven't met many people who have wind based chakra other than me. When I showed it to Temari, she passed out of Chakra exhaustion from trying it, so I guess I am the only one capable of doing that jutsu without passing out," said Naruto with an uneasy smile on his face, this silver-haired man was becoming weirder every day. "As for the mist thing, when I asked Jiraiya-sensei how I could do that he just said that I was like the Nidaime Hokage, like he was able to create water out of thin air, I am able to create mist pretty cool huh?" Naruto said the last part more to himself than to Kakashi.
"Indeed, very impressive control over water manipulation," said Kakashi, as he regained a little of the composure that he had lost after seeing Naruto's extensive arsenal of strong jutsus. "So, is there anything you can do with this jutsu, or is it just a jutsu to hinder ninjas, like a regular mist?" asked Kakashi, he knew that Naruto wouldn't have named it among his strongest jutsus unless it has more uses than just confusing the enemy.
"Well of course, why do you think it is one of my strongest techniques? When a person is in this mist, I can physically attack him, to such a degree that I can decimate him in the atomic level," replied Naruto proudly, partially surprising and partially confusing Kakashi as to how that is possible.
"Care to elaborate?" asked Kakashi as a sweat drop appeared on his head when he noticed Naruto looking at him with a smile on his face indicating that Kakashi should have figured the rest out already.
"Oh, well you see, Jiraiya-sensei said that I can form a mist mainly because I have wind and water jutsu. So inside the mist, I get full control of the particles of the elements that I control, which is wind and water. As you already know, wind in used mainly for cutting and slicing, so when inside the mist, I can use the wind particles inside the mist to attack the person at the atomic level and there will be nothing left of him by the time I am done! When I first told this concept to Jiraiya-sensei, he sounded skeptical, but said that if I could pull it off, it could possibly be one of the strongest jutsu ever created, so I trained with Paa Fukasaku for nearly a whole year before I learned and mastered this jutsu, and surprisingly it takes very little chakra to actually manipulate the wind particles to do the attacking, the most chakra is consumed in maintaining the mist, which is not that much either, so all in all it is a very chakra efficient, yet a devastatingly strong jutsu." Naruto completed his assessment of the full capacity of his own jutsu while Kakashi tried quite hard not to faint. He did not know whether he should be glad that Naruto was on Konoha's side or whether to run away from this terror of a Shinobi as quickly as possible.
Finally coming to a decision that it would be prudent to not leave this potentially hazardous Shinobi without supervision, he then and there decided that he would take Naruto's training upon himself, mainly so that he would be the first one to know to run for his life, should Naruto turn against them. "Well Naruto, to wrap up our training, I want you to attack me with nin-jutsu, although I will make it clear that no jutsu that can be a one-hit kill, or an instant life ender is allowed, and please refrain from using your mist jutsu, just so that I know you will not vaporize me," said Kakashi with an eye-smile, as Naruto sweat-dropped.
"Whenever you are ready Kakashi-sensei," said Naruto in a bored voice.
"GO!" shouted Kakashi and Naruto was a little surprised when his hands blurred. Then his own hands blurred, but Kakashi had the head start of a couple seconds and that was all he needed. First of all, a huge water dragon rose and charges straight at Naruto, then Kakashi's doton jutsu turned the ground around his feet to mud restricting his movement, and the he noticed two Kakashis charging straight for him, both preparing to do the Grand fireball jutsu. Naruto's mind jumped to overdrive as he quickly thought about all the possible counters to the attacks that Kakashi was unleashing on him. So the water-dragon met in a head on collision with two condensed air bullets. Then the water that had taken the shape of the dragon flowed towards Naruto and formed a dome around him. A dome! Kakashi stopped, a little confused, Naruto just attacked himself with the water ball prison jutsu? Then his Grand fireballs met in a thunderous clash, and slowly dissipated with a loud hiss as it met the water ball prison. When the smoke finally cleared, he saw a soaking Naruto standing there but he did not have even a light singe on his body.
"Naruto, if I am not mistaken, did you just attack yourself with the water ball prison jutsu?"
"'Course I did Kakashi-sensei, since you were attacking me with Katon from both sides, and I couldn't move, I figured that water was the beast way out, and the water ball prison was a technique that gave me a three-sixty degree coverage, so I used it, plus it is just a restraining jutsu, so while I couldn't attack you, I wasn't going to get hurt either. An even trade, don't you think?" replied Naruto obviously satisfied with the way he analyzed the situation and decided to get out of it with a unique solution that only he could think of.
"Brilliant, this kid is a genius!" thought Kakashi, a simple solution but something that no ninja would think of. What ninja would think of attacking himself with a restraining jutsu? No one Kakashi had ever met would even dream of something like that much less use it successfully in a battle situation! "Well don't think we are done yet," shouted Kakashi before he started rolling through jutsus again, as did Naruto. Their exchange in nin-jutsu went on for another hour and a half before it came to a conclusion when Kakashi's Rairiki rested an inch from Naruto's throat, who had his hands raised in a clear sign of surrender. "Well that concludes today's training I believe," chirped Kakashi as he withdrew his hand and the Chidori vanished.
"Training, that was no training, I didn't learn anything new, I didn't even get to see something that I haven't seen before," grumbled Naruto much to Kakashi's chagrin.
"Very true Naruto. Well I am going to report this to Hokage-sama; you have the rest of the evening to yourself. Enjoy!" with that the copy ninja took off towards the Hokage tower, and the blonde took off towards the western market district, no doubt to look for something to eat. Unnoticed by both, another masked ninja also took off, in a different direction than both other ones. The back of his uniform clearly read 'A.N.B.U. Division ROOT'.
Okay all done! Yup this chapter was a long one, probably the longest one yet. Awesome! Anyway, I got some positive reviews from the previous one and I thank those that did. But I am still disappointed with the low number of reviews, please review more, I like feedback. Next is I want to thank the person who said it would be a good idea to add a mall recap of the previous chapter so that you don't have to go back and reread the last part to remember what's going on in the story. And lastly, I know that in the real manga Naruto's interaction with the other kunoichis have been very limited. What do you guys think, should there be more? Let me know, so that I can dedicate my next chapter in building Naruto's social standing with the other females of Konoha. And there is going to be some classic Danzo in the next chapter too. Until then Sayonara, and please review or shoot me a P.M.!