Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Kekkaishi. It is the propriety of Kishimoto and ? respectively.

Hello everybody. I come again with the next chapter of Naruto the true ninja. I know it has been a while but I had several other issues that had priority over this, so I don't have anything to say to this. For those that are waiting for me to update Sylar's bloodline, don't worry, it will be done soon. I will try to be regular in my updates from now on (hopping I won't have any problems in the near future).

Last time on Naruto the true ninja: We see Naruto fight Kankuro and kills him because the latter was able to learn some of his secrets when their minds were linked. This cause Temari to go ballistic but she is stopped by her sensei before she could act. Also, Naruto was retrieved by a member of 'Root' to have a meeting with Danzo.

Edited: 05/12/2013

Chapter 6: Rivalry

KONOHA – TRAINING GROUND S3 –

Like every ninjas village, Konoha possesses training grounds that can be used by foreigners. This was implemented at the same time that the Chuunins exam was created and for several reasons. The most important one was to give those foreign ninjas the possibility to train during the one-month recess. There is also the fact that if those foreign ninjas were forced to go back to their village to train, then they would expose themselves to attacks from outsiders who want them to lose.

So it was without surprise that the Sand team, now composed of Sabaku no Gaara and Sabaku no Temari, was assigned a training ground for foreigners.

Right now, Gaara was standing at one of the corner of the training ground. He was training for the finals and for the first time, he was motivated. Then again, you would be if you knew that you would fight against someone that could remove or disable your main ability.

In front of him was a mini sea of sand that was floating in the air, almost lazily. He was looking at it intently. For a moment, it was like he was doing nothing. Suddenly, as if someone had cut the string that was sustaining the sand, the sea of sand fell on the ground.

This made Gaara sigh in frustration. It was at that moment that his sensei Baki, decided to appear a few meters away from him.

"How is it going?"

The frustrated look that Gaara send Baki was enough for the latter to know that it wasn't going so well.

"I see. I suppose it should be difficult. After all, you began this training only a day ago. Are you sure it's necessary?"

Gaara grunted in response. He didn't like to speak too much as for him, it was a waste of his energy. Maybe it was also because, in his childhood, he didn't have anyone to talk to, but he didn't care really. He was a loner and was fine with that. Looking at his sensei still gazing at him as if expecting something, he resigned himself to answer the earlier question.

"Like I said earlier and I don't want to repeat myself again." He threw Baki a look that said 'ask me this again and you will be in my hit list'.

"The strange box that Namikaze is able to produce, can and will remove my bijuu's chakra from the sand, should the sand be inside the box when he detonates it. I cannot afford to lose all my sand to this, so I have to learn how to refill the sand with Ichibi's chakra as fast as possible." Seeing his sensei nod at the explanation, he continued.

"While I could try to learn something other than my sand attacks, I won't have enough time to master whatever it is, for it to be meaningful. That is why I have to make do with what I have for now."

Baki nodded slowly, understanding the precarious situation their Jinchuuriki was in. Gaara was supposed to be their trump card after all, but that was before learning of Konoha's own trump card. 'I still wonder how they were able to keep hidden the existence of the yondaime's heir. They deceived the whole world and that make me wonder what else they have hidden.' He thought just before a violent gust of wind passed through Gaara and him.

Fortunately the wind was only powerful enough to raise the dust from the ground, nothing else. Once the dust was settled, he looked at the other side of the training ground where his second and now last student was standing, with her fan completely open.

"How long has this been going on?" He asked Gaara who was also looking at his sister.

"Since I started training."

"And what is she trying to do?"

This time, Gaara looked at him with a cold look upon his features, and without even hearing the answer, Baki knew that he had gone beyond the pale and that Gaara was becoming frustrated from answering his questions. Knowing that a frustrated Gaara was a dangerous person to be around, he decided not to test his luck and chose to ask the question directly to the concerned. So he moved toward Temari.

Temari was standing at the other end of the clearing since the morning. She had been trying to occupy her mind with something other than the sight of her brother's dead body, but that wasn't going very well. No matter how hard she tried she couldn't remove it from her mind. The only moment she had something close to a peaceful mind was when she was out there training.

But even training wasn't helping anymore, as she was trying to come up with techniques that would avenge her brother. Since entering this clearing, she had used her most powerful wind attack over and over again. In front of her, was the form of Namikaze as an imaginary target. This helped her a lot to vent some frustration.

'When I get my hands on him, I will kill him. Just you wait' She thought while swinging her fan again, producing an overpowered whirlwind, that shredded the imaginary Naruto. This brought a smile on her face, but it quickly disappeared as she noticed her sensei coming toward her.

She still hadn't forgiven him from stopping her when she tried to kill Naruto during the preliminaries. Of course she knew deep down that she wouldn't have succeeded with so many jounins in the room, but she needed to blame someone or something. In this case, Baki was the scapegoat.

"What do you want?" she snarled at Baki without even looking at him.

The concerned wasn't surprised by the reaction, but ignored it anyway. "Do you want any help for your training?" Like he thought, Temari refused his help, instead she asked a question that surprised him a little.

"What happened to… to Kankuro's body?" She choked at the end, still not having come to term with his death.

Baki sighed at that. "We sent his body back to the village for further analysis" And like he had thought, this made Temari turn her head and look at him with a cold gaze.

"You mean to be dissected, don't you?" Seeing Baking not answering was all she needed to conclude that it was indeed the case. "Not satisfied that my brother had to die trying to get information for the village, but you also have to desecrate his body to retrieve whatever information can be found, have you no shame at all"

She yelled to a wide-eyed Baki. He wasn't shocked by the anger displayed by his charge, but by the shocking thing that was happening around Temari as she become angrier, because the kunais that were discarded around Temari, were slowly bending. It was like the metal somehow became malleable.

Temari finally calmed herself and just turned her back on Baki, and sat on the ground in a meditating pose. Baki knowing that she was dismissing him, chose to retreat, all the while thinking about what happened just a moment ago. 'Is this what I think it is? If that is the case then…' A thin line formed on his mouth as he was already imaging what that could mean for them, for the sand village if what he saw was the real deal.

Temari on the other hand, was using an exercise she did whenever she wanted to get her mind off things. That was trying to sense everything around her. Like always, everything around her vanished, letting place to an abstract sight that showed her the position of every metal in her range of sight. That was how she was able to sense the special metal she remembered putting on Namikaze's teammate, Tenten if she remembered correctly.

She was surprised to 'see' that said person was in a deserted area, with no one around her. This made her smirk almost sinisterly as an idea immediately came to her mind.

'If I can't get him right now, then I will at least get his teammate'

She thought just before rising from the ground and getting out of the training ground under the watchful eyes of Gaara and Baki.

KONOHA – UNKNOWN AREA –

Naruto looked in front of him and couldn't help but remember how he came to be in contact with one if not the shrewdest man he has come to know in his relatively short life. It wasn't a fated destiny or another mysterious event that some would call. No, he met him for two reasons.

The first was because at the time, he needed protection from the highest ranking ninja in the village, the Hokage. Yes, strange for a ninja to need to protect himself from his boss, but you never know. At the time, he had just got out of the binding seal that Sarutobi put on him. The seal wasn't something that would hinder him in the training aspect. Rather, it was made specifically to insure his loyalty to the current Hokage and only.

If he were to try to rebel in any way, he would experience pain to such an extent that he would wish he was dead instead. What was even more dangerous was the fact that he wasn't aware of his predicament and wouldn't have, were it not for his sensei, the one who removed the seal and helped him whenever he needed some advices.

The second reason for his meeting with Danzo was the fact that the two possessed the same mentality. While the current ninja population disliked the way Danzo went about doing his business, he found it to his liking. His fighting style was after all inspired a little by Danzo's living style. Even though when it comes to fighting, he found Danzo to be no better than the other ninjas as the latter preferred powerful techniques.

He should know, with the latest ability Danzo gained thanks to his help when it came to the medical aspect of the ninja life.

Coming back to the matter at hands, he waited patiently for all of the ninja in the room to get out before he finally spoke.

"I didn't think you would want to meet me so soon." He looked surprised at Danzo. "Am I right in assuming that it is because of what happened with the Kazekage's son?"

Danzo smiled at this. "You have always been too perceptive for your own good." To which Naruto responded. "Considering it saved my life several times, I will take that as a compliment." He said before he did something that made Danzo narrow his eyes. Indeed Naruto who was standing still with his hands behind his back, just put them in front of him and crossed them.

Knowing what that meant, Danzo kept talking as if nothing was wrong. "Were you able to learn anything about Oto no Kuni?" Naruto nodded at the question and looked at Danzo strangely. The latter seeing the look, made a small gesture for Naruto to explain.

"While I learned nothing about the village itself, I was able to learn that they weren't in the village just for the exams, but were there to gain entry to the village during the finals." Naruto waited for Danzo to analyze what he just said and finally came to the conclusion that Naruto expected.

"I see. That is why you choose to eliminate the team from Oto when you could have spared them. This not only insured that they wouldn't gain access to the village as they don't have a ninja in the finals, thus don't have any valuable reason to be here, but also removed any future threats they might become. Well done Naruto – kun."

The interested said nothing but continued his report. "Several others events, like the appearance of Orochimaru, the sudden appearance of a new village that no one has heard about, aren't mere coincidence. All of this made me concludes that we are about to be invaded."

He finished to a wide-eyed Danzo who was surprised at the turn of the events. He was already trying to come up with a counter from this "not-anymore" surprise attack when Naruto finally uncrossed his hands. He became serious again. "So our spy is gone?"

"Indeed. It seems that the information I gave you was enough to satisfy the spy or he chose to get out of here before he was caught." Naruto explained to Danzo who nodded in understanding but still frowned in distaste.

"What I want to understand is how he came this close to us without my knowing."

"That would be because this spy is able to completely hide his chakra from the world to the point that even a sensor wouldn't pick it up."

Danzo looked at him intently at that. Knowing why the gaze was about Naruto continued. "While this technique is effective, it also stops the user from using any chakra at all. In which case, he cannot hide his scent and uses any stealth techniques that need chakra. I think that will be enough for you to come to the correct conclusion."

Danzo just nodded in a dismissive gesture before looking at the ceiling in obvious concentration. "The only person I know who can use this technique in Konoha is Koharu. That would mean that this spy is none other than her." Naruto just nodded at that, already knowing the identity of the spy and not surprised in the least.

"I didn't think that she would go so far as to learn from that old hag just to get back at me."

"You'd be surprised at what length people are willing to go to get their revenge." Naruto said apathetically, which made Danzo look sharply at him. "I suppose you'd know what you are talking about, wouldn't you? At any rate, I still don't understand how she came to learn that I was behind the death of her father."

Knowing that Naruto wasn't going to answer that question, as it was a rhetorical question anyway, he decided to get back to the point of the meeting. "Now that she is gone, how did you really learn of this invasion?"

Naruto hesitated for just a moment before he finally took a decision. "This came with the side effect of a jutsu I recently learned. While it isn't practical yet, I was able to gather the memories of a member of the sand team."

"I will spare you the details but to sum it up, Suna is currently in a precarious position, having lost a third of their missions because the Wind Daimyo is sending them to Konoha. So to stop this, they decided to side with Oto and attack the village during the finals of the exams. While I don't know what role Orochimaru is playing in this, I do know that he will be present."

Danzo listened intently to what Naruto said, while formulating plans after plans to get around this. "At least, with the information she gained, Sarutobi will learn of this invasion soon enough to formulate a plan that will certainly work against them. But just in case, we need to increase our chances by doing something drastic. Something that will cripple either Suna or Oto."

He said out loud and put his hand under his chin in a thinking pose, trying to come up with something. Like intended, Naruto too thought about a solution and came up with one that was not only bold but also dangerous at best. "I may have a solution for this."

Danzo focused again on Naruto. "We know that this invasion will be led by the Kazekage and Orochimaru at least. While we cannot reach the latter, the Kazekage is fair game."

"I see. And how would you go about doing this?" Danzo inquired.

"Easily. For this invasion, the Kazekage will need to travel from sand country to Konoha. He will not want to raise our suspicions so he will travel with a light guard. This will be the best time to strike by ambushing him. With one of the leader of this invasion down, they will certainly be forced to improvise, thus implement a plan not as thorough as it could have been. The problem right now will be to find someone that has the capabilities and the opportunity to do this."

Danzo contemplated what Naruto said and couldn't help but agree with him. 'Indeed, with one of them down, they will need to find another scenario to implement their plan. And knowing Orochimaru, he will certainly use this opportunity to get close to Sarutobi by impersonating the Kazekage. Yes, that could work.'

Having determined the chances of success for this mission, he was now having a hard time deciding or finding someone who could go on such mission. After all, despite the Kazekage being barely acceptable as a kage, he still was, thus had the skills that came with the position.

'Right now, the only ninja in the village that could deal with the Kazekage are Kakashi if just barely, Gai if he were to open those gates of his, Koharu with those Genjutsu of her, Sarutobi of course and finally myself.' He looked at Naruto who was standing still in front of him. 'Despite his power and style of fighting, he still isn't ready to face someone of that calibre.' Finally he came to a decision that made Naruto wide-eyed.

"I will go after the Kazekage myself. I need to get back in shape anyway, so that will be a good workout."

Naruto looked at Danzo shocked by what the latter said, as he never imagined Danzo would take such mission. But thinking about it, he deduced the reason behind this move. "You want to test that technique, don't you?"

The smirk on Danzo's mouth was all that he needed to confirm his suspicions.

Knowing that the matter was closed, he decided that the time was right to ask a favour to Danzo. "While this is interesting and all, I would like to be granted the permission to use one of the disposable prisoner to test a technique I came up with."

Danzo looked at Naruto warily at that. After all, the last time Naruto made that request, he almost gave away the position of the Root headquarters, thanks to the amount of chakra the technique gave off. "I will grant that request only if you make sure that the latest incident won't repeat itself." He looked at Naruto seriously to make him understand that it was an important matter. Once Naruto nodded, he made a gesture that signaled Naruto that he could leave.

Naruto bowed slightly before he made his way out. 'Now that this is over, I have to find Tenten to begin the training.'

KONOHA – TRAINING GROUND 9 – WITH TENTEN

In a remote area, Tenten was standing looking at the trees in front of her. This place was the official training ground of her team and the reason for his remoteness was that it was needed for keeping secret the training that the Namikaze heir was undergoing.

'Not that he really used this advantage as he always trains in secret in who knows where' Tenten thought as she jumped in the sky and rotated her body until she was upside down. Her arms blurred as she launched her kunais. Those weapons pierced through the air before reaching their targets with perfect accuracy.

She graciously landed on the ground and sighed. 'Still not fast enough.' She was trying to increase the speed at which the weapons flew but was having no luck with that. Her last fight with Temari had shown her that she needed to increase the speed of her flying weapons if she wanted to reach more powerful targets. But that was easier said than done, as such improvement wasn't acquired in the middle of the night.

"What are you doing here?" Tenten asked to the person who appeared behind her. Going by the anger laced behind the voice, it was easy to determine that whoever it was wasn't someone she liked.

Behind her, the figure slowly crept out of the bush that hid her body, before revealing none other than Temari with her fan already completely opened. She slowly walked toward Tenten with measured steps, before stopping a few meters from the latter who just turned around to face her. "I see you aren't as incompetent as I thought you were, if you were able to sense me." She sneered at Tenten. "Not that I was trying to hide in the first place."

"So the fact that you have been trying and failing miserably to dodge the defensive measures on this training ground is just mere coincidence." Tenten retorted while glaring at the intruder who glared right back.

"We both know that you aren't here to exchange whatever pleasantry you usually do with your friends if you even have any that is. So why are you here?"

Temari snarled at the insult she received but managed to calm herself pretty quickly, having learned from their last encounter to not be goaded. Instead she smiled in such a sweet way that even Tenten was a little taken off guard. "I assure you, I am not here for anything your little mind can come up with." She slowly brought her fan behind her in a ready position to use her wind jutsus. This made Tenten tense in anticipation. "While I cannot avenge my brother yet, I'll have to make do with you for the moment."

Just as she finished, she swung her fan strongly and created a whirlwind that charged toward Tenten's shocked form. The wind tore through Tenten before she could properly defend herself. Fortunately, she was able to replace herself with a log but not without suffering heavy damages from the attack. Temari quickly turned around knowing exactly where her target was thanks to the special metal she planted on Tenten.

"You can't hide from me bitch. I can sense you a mile away." Temari yelled while she turned around and swung her fan again, sending another whirlwind at the woods where Tenten had prepared to launch her attack from. This forced her to rethink her strategy and jump to another tree to escape the wind attack.

From there, everything went the same as during the exam, going even as far as Tenten using her Twin rising dragon. But this had the same effect that it had during the preliminaries, which means no effect at all. During all this, Temari was enjoying herself thoroughly as she was beating the shit out of Tenten and was venting her frustration.

Before long, Tenten fell on the floor unable to move anymore with blood pouring out of her body. Temari slowly advanced Tenten, all the while savoring the revenge she was delivering to the 'deserving bitch' in her eyes. She stopped just above Tenten and slowly raised her fan and positioned it in a makeshift sword, ready to decapitate her target.

"Any last words bitch?"

Tenten struggled to move but still looked defiantly at Temari just before the latter snarled at the defiance and swung the weapon. This time there was no one to save Tenten and that is why, like several ninjas before her, she took her last breath.

Seeing the dead body of one of her nemesis, Temari cried to the heaven in victory as she had accomplished one of her goals. After several seconds of yelling herself horse, she finally calmed down enough to look around her. And that is when everything became strange to her.

The sky went from blue to red.

The trees surrounding the training dissolved into nothing.

And finally the body of Tenten disappeared leaving no traces at all.

This alarmed her and she immediately knew that she was caught in an illusion. The shock she experienced was nothing short of humongous. She couldn't remember when she fell for this Genjutsu. Was it when she confronted her target? Was it when she looked at Tenten in the eyes? None of this made any senses to her. But she still did what any shinobi would have done in such a situation, she stopped the flow of her chakra in the hope of escaping the illusion but that didn't work, which further stunned her.

Finally after a moment, everything went black before her sight came back again and what she saw wasn't something she was ready for, because several paper bombs that were linked together in a way that if one of them was activated, the whole lot of them would explode too in a chain reaction surrounded her. And if that wasn't enough, the one controlling them was none other than her nemesis Tenten who was looking at her with a satisfied smirk.

"What do you think would have happened when you came here in the first place? Did you really think that our team wouldn't ensure that our training ground was protected from any outsiders?" Temari ignored the question for asking one of her own. "How? How did you capture me in that Genjutsu?" The way she spoke gave out the desperate situation she was in.

She knew that there were no escaping the trap she was in, so she was trying to stall for time hoping for a miracle to happen. None of this escaped Tenten noticed who savored the reversed role they had, as she was still bitter from her defeat.

"Do you really think I will reveal such thing to you? The only thing I will say is this, what made you think that you would be free to act as you see fit in our village? Did it never occur to you that there would always be someone watching you and your team?"

As she said that, a squad of four anbu materialized behind Tenten who was forced to defuse the seal bombs she had set as they requested. After all it wouldn't do for Konoha to kill another child of the Kazekage and this time in an unsanctioned battle. Tenten reluctantly did as she was told while the leader of the team whom had a cat mask, slowly approached Temari.

"I would advise against attacking another Konoha ninja and trespassing a restricted area again. You and your team are but guests in this village, you will do well to remember that."

Temari only distantly listened to the threat that was delivered by the anbu, and instead focused on Tenten, angry for having been played so easily. And if that wasn't enough she still didn't know what really happened in the first place. Though, she did calm herself and as coolly as she could, she gestured for the anbu to lead the way knowing that they would conduct her back to her team. 'I will remember that bitch. Don't even think for a second that I will forget this humiliation.' She thought viciously while she was being led back to where she came from.

In the training ground, Tenten looked at the proceedings and sighed in frustration. She had really wanted to get back at Temari for what she did to her during the exams. 'I will have to settle for this for now' she thought to herself just as Naruto appeared in front of her in a swirl of leafs.

Before Naruto could speak, she asked a question of her own. "How long have you been here?"

"Long enough. You do know that she won't forget this, don't you?"

"Like I care. She had it coming anyway." Tenten answered while she retrieved the stuck weapons on the target practice. It wasn't long before she came back and stood in front of him. "Did you come to train?"

Naruto shook his head in a negative answer. "It is time for us to begin your training." He said simply to which Tenten smiled widely. "Really? I thought you'd want to train alone for the finals?"

Naruto just went through handseals as he answered her question. "Who said I wouldn't be training too?" He finished and slowly, like before, water like door appeared in front of him. Seeing this stunned Tenten. "Don't tell me we will train at your home? I thought no one except you could get there?"

Her voice was trembling with shock, as she didn't think that Naruto would ever let anyone enter his home. "Don't flatter yourself. Although we will train in my compound, you won't be able to go anywhere but the training grounds. Now don't waste my time and come already."

Naruto said as he gestured with his hand for Tenten to follow. Once the latter got over her shock she hesitantly moved through the flowing door with Naruto beside her.

The only thing she could feel as she went through the door was the sensation of being stripped down to nothing. No, that wasn't the right word, she felt like she was disassembled before being reassembled. Almost instantly, she got her senses back and slowly opened her eyes and what she saw floored her completely.

Because where she expected to see giant trees, she saw a clearing made of short grasses. The grass looked like it was taken care of everyday, as they seemed far too well cut for it to have been naturally grown. But what got her attention the most were the strange elevated areas all around the clearing. There were at least a dozen of those platforms. These areas were about 2 meters above the ground.

"Each platform is made specifically to train a branch of the ninja arts." Tenten looked at Naruto as she heard him said that. "I won't tell you how they were created but what I can tell you is that they are more like gateways to virtual worlds where someone can train."

Seeing the questioning look on Tenten's face, Naruto decided to elaborate further. "For example the elevated area in front of you with the label chakra control in front of it." He pointed the area at Tenten who looked at it. "It simulates several kind of landscape like sandy, watery, even icy ones. This in turn allows the user to train their chakra control for each of those environments."

Tenten stood shocked at that; not having imagined something like that could be possible. But she regained her senses when she saw Naruto move toward a big house that she hadn't noticed. "I will let you go over each of these platforms while I go inside the house to take something. Oh and don't try to get out of this field, you won't be able to."

Tenten just nodded numbly as she was still trying to assimilate what she had learned. While Naruto went to his house, she moved around the platforms trying to guess what each of them did by reading their labels. So far she found that there was a platform to train in stealth, speed, strength and strategy. She was curious about how those platforms worked but she knew better than to use a device she didn't know the working of.

It wasn't long before her teammate came back from the house and she was surprised to see him carrying what looked like a scroll. She observed as he went across each of the platforms and put the scroll on it, before a blazing light came off of it. It was obvious, he was activating them so she stayed calm and observed him, until he finished and came back in front of her.

"Now that it is done, we can begin." Naruto gestured for Tenten to sit on the floor, and followed soon after. "You said that you wanted my help for training, but before going into that, I have several questions to ask."

Tenten looked at him attentively with a serious gaze, as if telling him to 'shoot' his questions. Taking that as a sign to begin, Naruto asked first. "What is your goal?"

She looked at him completely taken aback by this question. She was prepared for any kind of questions concerning her abilities but not about her goal. After a moment of reflexion, she finally answered. "I… I don't know really. All I want is to become a very good shinobi, to show everyone that a girl can also be a good shinobi."

"There are already plenty of kunoïchis out there that show us that women can also be good ninjas, so what difference would one more make?"

Not affected by Naruto rebuke, she answered back. "I don't know, but I want to left my mark on the world. I want to be one of the kunoichis that will be remembered as having played a role in giving female ninjas, the respect they deserve." She said firmly with her eyes radiating a determination that even surprised Naruto.

"Very well then." The latter said while nodding at the explanation. "Now that I know your goal, I need to know what talents you think you have. What abilities you have, and what you need to work on."

Tenten put her hand on her chin in a thinking pose as she thought about her abilities. After a while, she finally came to a conclusion, one that didn't really painted her in a great light.

"Well, if I rate myself using the different abilities of the ninjas, I am close to average when it comes to Ninjutsu – as I know only the 3 academy jutsus –, my skills in Genjutsu are non existent except when it comes to dispelling the weak ones, in taijutsu I am above average." She finished while Naruto just looked at her impassively, neither reacting nor disappointed.

"What about special abilities? Do you have any?" He asked.

"The only special ability I see is the one allowing me to always target accurately with any throwing weapons."

"And what do you think you should do to progress further?" Naruto asked finally after a long silence. Tenten gazed at him with an expression akin to 'what the fuck?', before answering. "That is the reason I came to you in the first place, didn't I?"

"That may be true, but do you expect me to give you all the answers you are looking for? I am a ninja like you, I am not a walking device able to give you any answers." Naruto answered while looking at a chastised Tenten. "Fortunately in this case I have an answer for you, but you shouldn't rely so much on me or anyone for that matter, so take that as a one time only." She nodded before he continued.

"To become strong one as to look at his strengths and weaknesses, and improve upon them in a specific manner. You must use your strengths to the maximum of your capability, while you improve you weaknesses until they aren't a weakness anymore, but some abilities where you are average at least. Going by this, what do you think you should do?"

Tenten thought quickly about what her teammate said, and went through everything she knew about herself before she smiled and came to an answer. "I have to use my accuracy to the best of my capabilities and increase my skills in every other ninja fields until they are average." Then she frowned. "I get it for the other ninja fields but what about my accuracy? I already use throwing weapons but their speed are directly linked to the force behind my throw, so no matter what I do, I will reach a point where it won't matter because ninjas will be too fast to be caught by a throwing weapon."

Naruto just looked at her and waited until Tenten widened her eyes in understanding. "I know. I have to find a way to throw things at a speed independent of my strength." Tenten smiled triumphantly at that. This made Naruto's lips twitch a little as if he wanted to smile too, but it quickly disappeared before anyone could see it, letting place to the calm looking Naruto.

"Are you familiar with crossbows?" Naruto asked, interrupting his teammate who nodded her head. "Then you should begin to think of a way to use one in a ninja fight."

"What about the time needed to charge an arrow in-between shots?" Tenten asked while frowning at the new difficulty that arose.

"Don't worry about that yet, by the time of the chuunin exam finals, I will have a weapon for you to use, that won't have that problem. What you need to concentrate on is to find a way to fight in long range, as that is what you will have to do from now on. Of course I don't have to tell you not to neglect other aspect of being a ninja."

Tenten nodded at that, while Naruto got up and moved towards one of the platforms. "Now it is time to test you. We will begin with strategy." Tenten groaned at that knowing that she was in for a long time.

KONOHA – UNKNOWN LOCATION –

While Naruto and Tenten were training, several other people were plotting. Whether it was against them in particular was something that remained to be seen, but right now, two people were standing in a room devoid of any furniture. This was done to easily spot any recording or spying devices. One of them was none other than Koharu Utatane, one of the elders of Konoha council.

Few people knew this, but in her youth she was a ninja with skills in Genjutsu that were unparalleled. She was so good at it that she invented her own brand of illusion, ones that made even the Uchiha clan think twice before engaging her in combat.

In front of her stood a ninja that seemed very short and thin. Said ninja wore a mask that hid his face and because of the darkness of the room, it was difficult to see the hair colour.

"I see that you came back safely from your venture. It seems that you have progressed quite fast." Koharu asked. "Yes master. It was thanks to your lessons of course." The short ninja answered softly.

"So what did you learn from that old crone Danzo."

"Several things master. During my venture, I came across a meeting of some kind. The meeting was between the Namikaze heir and him." Koharu nodded at that, not the least bit surprised by that, as it was well known among the higher echelon that Naruto and Danzo were close and were working together. For what? No one knew.

"It seems that Namikaze – san had other objectives during the chuunin exams. He talked about having investigated everything related to Oto no Kuni and came to the conclusion that they weren't in the village just for the exam but to actually gain an entrance to the village by using the final part of the exam as an excuse."

Koharu interrupted her at that. "For what purposes?"

"For an invasion it seems." The spy answered to a wide-eyed Koharu not having expected that. The latter made a gesture for the spy to continue. "It also seems that Orochimaru is among the ones plotting this invasion, as he has close ties with Oto. But what he is to that village, they don't know yet." Finished the spy.

"We can assume that he is the leader of Oto. Knowing him, he would never accept being led by anyone. That was one of the reasons he fled the village after losing the spot of yondaime hokage." Koharu mused out loud as she was thinking of the repercussions of this information. She could already imagine the Sarutobi's reaction once he learned what his once prized student was planning.

Finally she looked back at her apprentice. "Where you able to learn anything else? Something about the Namikaze perhaps?" But her apprentice shook her head in a negative gesture. "Unfortunately, no. I only learned that he killed the Oto team to stop them from gaining an entry to the village during the finals. But beyond that, nothing."

Koharu nodded at that, not having expected anything conclusive. After all, she like several other people, has been trying to learn anything about the boy for a long time now, but it seemed that he was simply too perceptive for any spy. He never trained outside his compound – they didn't even know its location – despite the training ground they prepared specifically for him and his team. 'To think that it was only a few days ago that we were able to see the Namikaze bloodline in action, and what a dangerous bloodline it is.' She thought while shuddering a little while remembering the way Naruto dispatched Kankuro for an unknown reason.

She was about to dismiss her apprentice when the latter looked pointedly at her and asked a question that was quickly becoming a routine. "Why am I not allowed to go after Danzo yet?"

Koharu sighed tiredly at that. "Do I need to remind you that you are not yet ready to face someone like him? He may be old, but he didn't fight for the spot of Sandaime hokage by being weak you know?"

But like always, her apprentice stubbornly refused to accept her words. "That may be so, but even a kage can be killed by a genin with the right tools. I know that he cannot sense me when I use those Genjutsu you taught me. It would be easy for me to sneak on him and do the job."

This time Koharu's eyes narrowed. "Don't get cocky little girl. You may be able to sneak on him but by the time you make your move he will have killed you. On paper, it is easy to say that you can kill anyone with the right preparations but faced with a Kage level ninja, all preparations are nothing more than little distractions."

She chastised her apprentice while leaking a little bit of killing intent, enough to stop her apprentice dead on track. "I know you want to avenge the death of your father Sakura, but you will avenge no one if you end up dead."

The newly revealed Sakura nodded slowly as she stood up from her kneeling position before exiting the room they were in, but not before the light of day showed her pink hairs to the world.

KONOHA – NEXT DAY –

In a dimly lighted path, Naruto was walking at a leisurely pace. It was very earlier in the morning but that didn't stop him from waking up and doing what he had to do. Right now, he was walking toward a training facility that was prepared by one of the members of 'Root'. He didn't train in his own compound because today's training involved a prisoner provided by Danzo, for his experiments.

While walking, he came across a member of the organization that wasn't unknown to him. In front of him stood a young ninja that seemed as old as he, but that was where the similarities ended. While he wore standard black anbu outfit, the one in front of him wore a black pant accompanied by an outrageously short shirt that left his belly visible. Add to that the creepy smile that this person seemed to have fixed on his face.

'No mistakes possible, this is...'

"You are up early Naruto – sempai." The ninja in front of Naruto said.

"I can say the same about you, then again, unlike you I don't live here, Sai."

The latter just nodded, but didn't ask more questions knowing that his sempai didn't like being questioned too much. Fortunately Naruto took the initiative.

"I see that you are still reading that book on human mannerisms."

"How so, sempai?" Sai asked innocently.

"Only in that book would you find the use of that ceaseless smile to be normal for human being." Naruto continued to an unperturbed Sai who still had his creepy smile on. But that didn't bother Naruto in the slightest, having already become accustomed to it.

"But I digress, with you here I can finally ask you something that bothered me." Sai with the same smile muttered something that resembled 'go on'.

"Did Danzo ask you to flunk the exams?"

"Yes, what of it?"

Naruto looked at Sai with narrowed eyes, already thinking of the reasons behind Danzo's moves. "I am just surprised that you let that Inuzuka get the better of you." He finally said to his fellow ninja who just shrugged it off as if it was nothing.

"It wasn't really difficult to do that. As long as it serves a purpose for Danzo – sama, I'm fine with it." This answer made Naruto even more suspicious, as he knew very well that Sai wasn't someone who liked to be considered weak and thus had never intentionally lost a fight.

'I suppose it comes with the pride we take in our strength. With the amount of time and dedication it takes to reach our level, it is not surprising we want to be recognized for it.' Naruto thought while thinking of a reason behind Sai's nonchalant response. It wasn't long before he came to the probable reason and it made him look at Sai with an intense gaze.

"Sai, what are you planning on doing to the Inuzuka?" He softly asked Sai whose smile widened even further if that was possible. The smile was enough for Naruto to know that his fellow ninja was planning something against Kiba, something that wouldn't be good for the latter.

"Have a good training session Naruto – sempai." Sai joyfully replied while moving around Naruto to go about doing his business.

Naruto just looked at Sai's back before sighing and walking towards the training facility he was supposed to be at. 'I could probably force him to stop whatever he has planed for the Inuzuka but that would just make him hold a grudge against me, and I can't afford that right now. In any case, it isn't my problem and it doesn't interfere with my plans. But enough thinking about that, I have a test to accomplish right now.'

It wasn't long before he reached the training room and walked methodically toward its center. The room was just a large cave that was built using several Doton jutsus, as the walls and the ceiling were hardened chunks of earth. The ground was bare of any herbs. At the center of the room was a small lake with a small island in the middle.

While walking, Naruto could see the man that was tied on the chunk of earth. The man had a hood completely covering his face. This was done to spare those that saw him, the nightmare of seeing him being tortured and whatever could happen to him. Not that it helped Naruto much as with his dojutsu, he could see right through the fabric. He could disable it, but he chose not to, as he didn't want to do something on someone that he knew personally. After all, it wasn't impossible for Danzo to get Naruto to experiment on someone he knew, with him being none the wiser. Add to that, the fact that what he did to those prisoners didn't bother him in the least, as he knew that not only would they do the same to him if they had the chance but he did nothing that would leave any lasting effects except maybe killing them by mistake.

Once he was in front of the man, he silently created a clone of him that retrieved a scroll from his pocket, before going back to the entrance. Once there, the clone slowly unravelled it, showing that it was filled with several sealing matrices. Then the clone sent chakra on it before the scribbling glowed blue and quickly expanded until it covered the entrance. Then in a flash the blue light covered the whole room before disappearing as if nothing had happened.

Seeing his work done, the clone nodded at his creator before slowly crumbling, showing that it was an earth clone. Naruto looked at his clone and smiled, knowing that the seal he applied would destroy any spying or recording device, all the while making it impossible for anyone to enter until he deactivated the seal. This was done so that Danzo wouldn't know what he was experimenting on.

He looked back at the man in front of him, and said slowly. "I do not know who you are and I really do not care, just know that you will help me today in testing the efficiency of a seal I just designed."

He said out loud while going to work on applying the final version of the seal that he finished the design in the forest and thanks to the snake sannin.

Author's Notes:

I hope you liked this chapter. Now reviews if you liked the chapter or if you have a comment to add.

Next time, you will finally get to see what the seal Naruto created do.