A.N. I dont own Naruto, Kenshin, or any other anime or manga used herein – Seijuro Himura is a OC of my creation. Now on to chapter 6

-)::(- Team 7: the Samurai, The Trickster, and the Healer -)::(-

Hinata had to hold back a laugh as she rounded a corner in the market district as she followed Naruto to training ground 7; he had lost none of his energy in his three year trip that much was certain, but then again, she figured she'd have been sad if he had. She ducked to avoid a beam jutting out from some construction and bounded forward to keep pace with her blond friend. People turned as they ran by and stared in confusion and awe, unsure of who was running past them but impressed by the speed. In a way, this was what she had always wanted, Hinata mused; to be running along side Naruto as an equal, a partner, without the crippling shyness she had once been plagued with. It was, exciting was the only word she could give it, and a part of her didn't want it to end. Still she wanted to show what she could now do as well, so she smiled as they landed in the clearing that made of training ground seven and were greeted by their fellow gennin.

"Naruto! Hinata! Its about time you two got here, Kakashi-sensei said the test was scheduled for noon!" Sakura smiled as she approached the pair. "Still, you got here before our lazy teacher so I guess you aren't late." She wrapped the two in a quick group hug, "Nice to see you two again, how were the training trips?"

Hinata smiled and let Naruto launch into an animated recounting of the morning and a flamboyant explanation of how cool Hinata now was. When Sakura pressed him for info on what he had learned himself, Hinata saw him again go quiet and avoid direct conversation on the matter. Unlike Hinata however, Sakura continued to press the poor boy for at least a small snippet of info. "Come on Naruto, how are we going to be able to work together if we don't know each others skills!"

Hinata blinked and turned to the pink haired girl, "What do you mean by that, Sakura-san?"

Sakura turned to Hinata, "Wait… Shishou didn't tell you? Kiba and Shino made it to Chunin while you two were away, and so have Ino and Chouji, the three of us are the only ones of our class that are still gennin, they're combining us into a single cell. The three of us are officially a team from now on."

Naruto grinned madly, "Cool! That's awesome! Baa-chan told us in her office that you were training under her to be a Med-nin, is that right Sakura?"

Sakura nodded and waved him off, "I didn't want to be a weak link in my team, so I took the time you were gone to get stronger that's all"

Hinata gave her a small nod as she spoke, "We all decided to get stronger, so we can protect the ones we care about."

Naruto looked between the two girls and grinned, "Because that's our nindo… right Kakashi-sensei?"

Kakashi stepped out of the tree line and nodded, "You've gotten better at detecting people Naruto, nice work"

Naruto shrugged and stated flatly "Uzumaki family trait, or so Ero-sennin tells me… won't tell me how he knew that though."

Kakashi frowned, "it's because your family had dangerous enemies, you have enough to worry about because of akatsuki, and he doesn't want to add to your problems."

Hinata raised an eyebrow at the one-eyed jonin, so he knew as well? She supposed that only made sense, he was the Yondaime's gennin pupil… but then she frowned, they had been talking about an Uzumaki clan, that would have been Naruto's mother, not his father, who was a Namikaze, did that mean his mother was famous as well? She had never heard of anyone else with that family name, but Naruto had used the word clan. "I didn't know you had a clan Naruto-kun"

Naruto shook his head, "I don't, not really, Ero-sennin says they all died in some war with Iwa, my mom was the last he says, well until me anyway," He gave a wry grin, but then looked away with an odd look on his face. Hinata frowned, 'he knows more than Jiraiya and Kakashi thinks he does… but how, and what?'

Kakashi cleared his throat and drew the attention of the gennin as he produced a set of bells from his vest with a jingle "so here's the deal, I've been told to test your skills so we're going to do the Bell test to see how far you've progressed in three years. Since you are already gennin, there are enough bells for everyone, no hidden test of teamwork this time, though I trust you will work as a team" he shook the three bells for emphasis, "you'll have until noon tomorrow to subdue me, you can use whatever methods you wish." He held up a timer as he continued, "this is an assessment so there isn't a pass or fail like a normal test, still you'll need to come at me with the intent to kill if you want to impress the judges. The test begins… now" with that Kakashi vanished with a shunshin.

Naruto turned to Hinata, "any sign of him Hinata-chan?"

Activating her Byakugan and scanning the area she soon pointed ahead of the group, "He's underground about 30 meters ahead of us"

Sakura grinned and stepped forward, pulling on a pair of black gloves, "here let me take the opening swing!" as Sakura punched the ground it seemed to give way beneath and around them like fracturing glass, exposing a rather startled looking Kakashi now desperately trying to dodge the shifting debris, Sakura grinned and joked in a sickeningly sweet voice, "found you, Kakashi-sensei"

Hinata saw him attempting to use a large boulder as a shield and smirked as she drew her sakabatou, "Do-ryu-sen" Kakashi's eyes widened further as a shockwave shattered his cover into a deadly barrage of shrapnel. Naruto grinned at the now exposed jonin and tossed a few kunai at him while running through a set of hand signs the jonin could swear he had seen somewhere before.

Naruto however merely stated, "Kage Kunai no jutsu" and suddenly the air was black with blades. Kakashi parried a few of the projectiles before noticing Naruto was still running through hand signs.

'wait,' Kakashi thought 'that looks like the hand signs for… shit!'

he had not time to think further as the kunai in the air exploded in smoke to reveal shadow clones while Naruto yelled, "Bunshin Daibakuha."

When the smoke from Naruto's barrage of explosive clones cleared the three genin stood staring across the ravine they had created at a very winded Kakashi, his Hite-ate raised to reveal the Sharingan eye. "Maa, you three sure aren't planning to go easy on me are you? If it hadn't been for Obito's eye I'd probably be down and out."

The jonin nodded before running through a barrage of hand-signs faster than the three could follow before continuing, "lesson one, Ninjutsu, doton: Doryudan no jutsu" And then it was an all out dance of parries and dodges as the gennin avoided the bullets of rock and earth Kakashi's jutsu was now barraging them with. Kakashi smiled to himself as he watched the three, Sakura was simply punching the rocks into dust, Hinata was slicing them in half with the back of her Sakabatou, and Naruto was using one handed Rasengans to shatter the projectiles that came in his direction.

Meanwhile in the trees outside the clearing Tsunade and Jiraiya watched the events below unfold, Jiraiya whistled as a tremor shook the clearing, "What have you been feeding that girl? She's stronger than you were at that age!"

Tsunade grinned, "She's something alright, but what about the Gaki? He seems to be doing a good job giving orders, not something I was expecting out of him."

Jiraiya nodded, "The kid asked me one day to teach him how to be a better team-leader. Said the Kyuubi told him a Hokage who isn't good at leading others is a worthless joke and that he should learn to be like the Yondaime if he wants to be the next Hokage."

Tsunade stared at Jiraiya, "The Kyuubi said that to him? That sounds almost like…"

Jiraiya nodded, a look of pensive nervousness on his features, "Like she's finally come back to here senses, Yeah I thought so too, but the Gaki hasn't said anything, so I don't know if she's revealed any of the truth to him. Still, I told him about his 'blood limit' once it started to show, no specifics on family, but he knows Uzumaki are, well were, from Uzu-no-Kuni."

Jiraiya knocked a rock out of the air that had flown in their direction as Tsunade spoke, "If she has come back to us, I think its time we told him the truth, all of it. I know you agree that he deserves to know about his past, it's only fair."

Jiraiya nodded, "Agreed, but what about his teammates, do we tell them that their lovable idiot is the son of the Yondaime hokage, Minato Namikaze and the…" he paused looking down at the three as Naruto was explaining some form of plan to his two teammates, "… and that his mother was the leader of the guardians of the shrine of Inari-Daimyojin, the Uzumaki-no-youko, Kushina Uzumaki… the Kyuubi-no-youko."

Tsunade shook her head, "we have to trust them to do the right thing, we can't keep hiding him from them; Shikamaru already started asking questions while you two were gone. They are adults now; they can handle the idea of him being a hanyou." Jiraiya nodded as the two leap off the tree to follow after the gennin as they sped off after their foe.

Naruto's eyes scanned the forest ahead of him for any signs of his prey, ears alert to the slightest shift in the breeze, or rustle of leaves. Beside him Sakura and Hinata were also scanning the area for signs of the target. Hinata pointed in a direction and Sakura kicked the ground sending a small shockwave down field. Naruto grinned evilly as his ears picked up a slight yelp of surprise from Kakashi in the distance. "found him nice work Sakura-chan, Hinata-chan."

Naruto ran forward and the two girls followed close behind, "Naruto," Sakura yelled forward, "are you sure this will work? I mean it seems a bit… stupid for Kakashi to fall for something like this."

Naruto merely grinned as he honed in on the trail with his nose and ears, sure they weren't as good as the wolf-blooded Inuzukas', but there is something to be said for a Kitsune's ears he thought. He shook his head as he felt the reactive presence of Kyuubi in him, she was going to let him have it for being so pragmatic about his abilities, but he needed to focus on the task at hand, so he forced the link down. Walking out into the field calmly, he greeted his waiting sensei who had sat down on a tree stump to read his Icha-Icha novel. "Yo, Kakashi-sensei, still reading that old junk eh?"

Kakashi looked up at his student and laughed, "Still don't appreciate Jiraiya-sama's work, eh? Your loss."

Naruto shook his head, a fox-like grin crossing his features, "Its not that, its just that I have this gift I was supposed to give you earlier…"

he produced a small green book from his jacket and held it up to the wide unbelieving eyes of his sensei, who yelped out his startled response, "Is that a pre-release copy of the new Icha-Icha?"

Naruto shook his head, "No, it's an autographed pre-release copy of the new Icha-Icha novel, with a limited edition cover, and a poster for the Icha-Icha movie."

Kakashi's excitement was clearly visible as Naruto tossed the new book over to him, "Thank you Naruto, this is an excellent gift, I will have to start…" He suddenly yelped in surprise when the bright green book transformed into Sakura in front of his face.

He dodged to the left to avoid the sledgehammer like hay maker of the pink haired medic only to see Hinata appear in front of him her eyes hard as she settled into a batou-jutsu stance, "Gomen, Kakashi-sensei, this will most likely bruise. Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu Batou-jutsu Ougi…"

and then suddenly she had appeared right next to him, her blade just barely parried by Kakashi's kunai thanks to his Sharingan eye. They ground their blades against each others for a few fractions of a second before Kakashi was able to turn the blade aside. He was about to counter when he suddenly felt the air around him concusively collapse towards the young kunoichi, pulled from his footing and suddenly unable to breathe he could only watch in shock as Hinata spun on her lead heel, bringing the blade around for a second strike. And then, his world went black as he heard Hinata cry out, "Amekakeru Ryu no Hiremeki."

Sakura whistled as she watched Kakashi get tossed backwards like a rag-doll, "Damn, that girl has gotten fast."

She looked over to Naruto, "How did you know about that new Icha Icha?"

Naruto shrugged as he took the bells off of their downed opponent's belt, "cause Ero-sennin writes them, truth is I do actually have that as a gift for him… anyway the plan worked just like I said, and you guys were awesome!"

Sakura smiled, "hey it was your plan that made it work, right Hinata?"

The violet haired girl nodded from where she was tying up Kakashi for good measure, "Hai, you really out did yourself Naruto-kun."

Naruto shook his head and laughed, "Nah, just think of it like one of my pranks, that's all it is really, the old switch-a-roo, Just in the middle of combat."

Sakura shook her head in bemusement, "its like you live and breath pranks"

Hinata was about to comment when Naruto suddenly fell forward to the ground seemingly unconscious. "Naruto-kun!"

Naruto frowned as his sight came back into focus onto the familiar sight of the cage of the Kyuubi, and the pair of giant glowing red eyes glaring down at him. He gulped as he inched away from the bars before a booming voice spoke out from the shadows, "And just where do you think you are going?"

Naruto gave a very fox-like yelp as he froze, eyes locked on the bars, "Ah… nowhere?"

the voice chuckled from behind the bars as the eyes shifted down to human height and size, as a tall red-haired woman walked into the light and through the gap in the bars, a chain attached to an anklet leading back into the shadows of the prison. "Good," she said crouching down in front of him and smirked, "I would hate to think my own kit was afraid of me."

She grinned ferally at him and he gulped, "And whats this about blood line traits? I don't remember us Uzumaki-no-youko ever having such a thing as that, only humans can have such things."

Swallowing back a whimper, Naruto spouted out his explanation as fast as he could, "You told me not to let anyone know that I'm a Kitsune-hanyou, and Ero-sennin called our skills a blood trait himself, so I thought it was ok to call them that, you did say he knew about you."

He looked downcast and whispered, "Gomen, Okaa-san, it wont happen again."

Kushina Uzumaki, the Kyuubi no Kitsune, grabbed her young son's shoulders and hugged him, "I'm not mad at you, kit. I'm a Kitsune remember, I was joking."

Naruto glared at her as she laughed, but she waved him off, "regardless, now that you're back in Konoha you can help me out with something of a loophole in this … arrangement of ours."

Naruto stared at his mother in surprise, "a loophole?"

Kushina nodded, a vulpine grin across her face, "all of my soul isn't actually trapped in you and that seal scroll the Yondaime made, a small portion of it is stored in my houshi-no-tama at the temple of Inari-Daimyojin of Hi-no-Kuni."

Naruto cocked his head to one side, confusion written on his face, "Houshi-no-tama? What's that?"

Kushina gestured with a clawed hand, "it's the price of gaining a human form, a Kitsune who does so siphons off a portion of their essence into a charm that's offered to a household or shrine as a promise of guardianship."

She smiled as she stroked his hair, "if you find my houshi-no-tama, I can use it to form a body outside the seal, and transfer my consciousness into it, although my mind will come back here if I get knocked unconscious or while the new body is sleeping."

Naruto looked ready to jump for joy, but she held up a hand to silence him, "just one thing kit, doing this means destroying my houshi-no-tama, and that means no more human form for me, ill be stuck in fox-form. A smaller fox-form mind you, but fox-form non-the-less."

Naruto frowned, "can't you just make a new one once you have a new body?"

She smiled at him, "yes, and I plan to do so, but that will take several months to do, so you'll be stuck with furry-me for a while."

Kushina began to walk back into the cage and called out over her shoulder, "I'd tell your teammates about all this if I were you, and Jiraiya and Tsunade-obasan as well, that way they don't panic when they see me running around. Oh and tell your new girlfriend that your mom says the coat she gave you looks nice" and with that Kushina pulsed her chakra to force him back to the waking world.

Hinata and Sakura sighed in relief as Naruto groaned and sat up, looking around him in confusion. Hinata helped him stand as he apologized to the Violet haired girl, "Gomen, Hinata-chan, I didn't mean to faint like that."

Hinata hovered over him eyes filled with worry, "are you sure you're ok Naruto-kun, you aren't sick are you?"

from behind them Sakura snickered at the ironic reversal of roles she was seeing and shook her head, sighing, "Hey, Hinata, Naruto, what should we do with our teacher?"

she jabbed a thumb at the still knocked out and hog-tied sensei on the ground. Hinata pondered that but Naruto spoke up quite quickly. "leave him tied up with the new book on a stump across the clearing!"

Sakura grinned impishly and Hinata gave a small smile "one last prank as we leave huh Naruto?" the pink haired medic laughed out, "I think that might just be the best one you've thought to pull on him yet."

Naruto just shrugged and smirked, "Its a gift."