"Oy you! Ero-baka! What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Naruto furiously yelled at the white haired man crouched behind the fence.

Naruto had been working on his speed, running about konoha while his clones worked on control and strategy without him. He knew Kurenai had taken Yugao to the onsen to try to cheer her up. When the man ignored Naruto, he became even more enraged- those were his senseis, no, his friends in there.

"Well then I'll make you leave!"

Naruto charged at the pervert only to be stopped at the sight of a giant toad poofing into existence under the pervert. The toad's tongue shot towards Naruto while he frantically flipped his hands through the signs for a ration jutsu. He completed the signs just in time and as the tongue wrapped around his body, electricity pored out from his skin shocking the toad and numbing his tongue. As the toad's tongue flopped in the dust and it tried to pull his now useless tongue back into its mouth, the old man turned around in irritation which quickly turned to shock.

Head tilted in curiosity the old man spoke, "What's your name brat?"

"Naruto Uzumaki and don't forget it. Now stop peeping or else I'll beat your ass old man!" Naruto growled.

The man had a thoughtful look in his eyes as he agreed to leave. 'After all, I think it is more important to ask Sarutobi Sensei why a Minoto clone is walking around Konoha when Minoto's kid died…'

"Impressive gaki."

Nauruto whirled around to see the same pervert from earlier that day leaning against a tree watching him.

"What are you doing here." Naruto accusingly questioned.

"You've got great reflexes and speed." The old man answered, avoiding the answer to Naruto's question. He had just watched Naruto stand in the middle of a group of clones throwing kunai and shuriken at him as Nauruto bended in impossibly flexible ways and deflected or dodged every single weapon. The old man continued to stare at Naruto, as if seeing a ghost. Unable to wait any longer for the old man to explain himself, Naruto burst fourth yelling at him again.

"Why are you spying on me pervert?!"

The old man chuckled. "Me? Oh I just thought I'd check out my new student's ability."

Naruto scowled. "I don't need your help. I've already got two of the best senseis anyone could ask for."

"Oh, and who are these two? Where are they- I was under the impression your Sensei was Kakashi."

"How do you know who's team I'm on?" Naruto's eyes narrowed in suspicion.

The man chuckled. "I the great Jiraya know everything." Apparently not though…When Jiraya had confronted Sarutobi about the blonde clone and learned that his student's son had lived, well that had been a shocker.

"You still didn't tell me who these Senseis are."

"You were peeping on them earlier today- Kurenai Yuhi and Yugao Uzuki. They're the best! Why would I want you're training?"

"Listen Naruto," Jiraya sighed. "I can't tell you why, but I owe it to someone to help train you. And I am one of the legendary sannin. You might find my training useful."

Naruto considered his offer- he knew Yugao wouldn't be able to help him much, she was still depressed. And Kurenai could only meet with him at night. Besides, he had a promise to keep- and he never broke those.

"Alright, I accept."

Jiraya smiled. "Good, care to show me what you've been doing?"

As Naruto showed him around each group of clones, tirelessly practicing their jutsus and chakra exercises, Jiraya halted at the sight of Naruto's clones working on waterfall walking. They were shirtless- and the seal on their stomaches was not the seal he had seen Minoto craft thirteen years ago.

"Oy, ero sensei, I thought you only peeked at girls. Why the heck are you staring at my clones like that?"

A tint of worry clearly evident in Jiraya's voice he spoke again. "Naruto, lift up your shirt for a moment and channel some chakra- I need to examine your seal."

Naruto grudgingly lifted up his shirt and channeled chakra. Jiraya muttered something to himself about Orochimaru always being with sloppy seals before unsealing the addition that Orochimaru had so kindly given Naruto.

"Ok Naruto summon 50 clones."

Naruto began to move his hands into the familiar cross shaped seal, but then paused. What had Jiraya just done to him? And why was he summoning 50 clones?

"wait what did you just do?" Naruto asked.

"Just summon the clones Naruto."

Naruto gathered the chakra and yelled out kage bunshin no jutsu, but when the smoke cleared, there wasn't 50 clones around them. There was more like 200. As Naruto gaped in awe, Jiraya explained that the seal had been messing with his control.

There were now 9 days left until the finals. Jiraya had taught Naruto how to summon and with his very high level of control from the intense exercises and release of the seal plus his huge reserves, Naruto managed to summon a toad about half his size on his first try, completely shocking Jiraya.

Naruto had now mastered all of his jutsus to the point that he could at least cut down on the number of hand signs needed if not having eliminated them all. He also had completely managed all of the chakra exercises he was taught and had now taken to doing his meditation while sitting on the waterfall, floating a kunai from both his hands with a leaf attached to his head. With Naruto's clones working on summoning so much, they had managed to summon huge amounts of toads of all sizes. While Naruto intended to do only mild training on the two days before the finals, he still had seven days left before then. And he was bored.

"Ero Sensei!" Naruto yelled. "What else have you got for me?"

Jiraiya grumbled in annoyance, there were some gorgeous girls bathing and that gaki had gone and learned summoning too quickly. 'I know it's your son, and I missed most of his life, but I need to research' Jiraya thought, letting out a perverted giggle at the thought of more naked bodies. Looking for a way for Naruto to learn without having to teach, Jiraya quickly settles on throwing Naruto a whole collection of books on sealing to read.

"What use is sealing?!" Naruto yelled at his perverted teacher. When Jiraya failed to respond, Naruto just summoned a clone for each book and continued to run.

At the end of the day, Naruto released all his clones before going to meet Kurenai. He started to run off, but then a huge smile burst onto his face as he assimilated what his clones had read in the sealing books. 'flash tags, smoke bombs, exploding tags, sealing my swords, hehehe I've got lots of stuff to use against Neji now.' So, while walking off towards Kurenai's place, he began to formulate his strategy. After all, to become a chunnin you need to show intelligence- not just power. And he must be Neji- he has to prove there is no such thing as fate.

As he walked, completely absorbed in figuring out how to utilize everything he knew against Neji, he slammed straight into Sakura.

From the ground, Sakura yelled up at the blonde genin. "Watch it you baka, Sasuke would never walk into someone."

Naruto sighed. "Gomen Sakura," he apologized. 'I was deep in thought."

"Well even if Sasuke was deep in thought he would never knock anyone over- he's perfect."

With a look of utter disbelief on his face Naruto chuckled. "Oh really now?"

Seeing the look of conviction on Sakura's face Naruto sighed at the absolute fangirl nature of his teammate. "If Sasuke is all powerful, then why does he need all of Kakashi's attention for a month in order to become better for the Chunin finals?"

"Kakashi is just watching Sasuke train," Sakura retorted, hearts in her eyes. "Sasuke doesn't need any help and even on his own he'll be better than you'll ever be even with whatever idiots ever decided to train you, deadlast."

Naruto's eyes narrowed in anger. "Say whatever you want to about me, but do not ever insult those important to me. My Sensei's are the best and it is because of them that I will become better than Sasuke could ever be."

"That's impossible! Sasuke is an Uchiha and he was rookie of the year!"

"Dojutsu or not, Sasuke will never become as powerful as I will because he fights out of anger and to hurt. I fight to protect, out of love. That is what will make me strong. Despite my academy standing, I will become the best to protect what is important to me. Sasuke's anger will only hold him back."

"Sasuke was rookie of the year! Clearly your idea is wrong!"

Naruto bristled in anger and frustration, why couldn't he get through to the girl? "Standings mean nothing! I was considered the worst, and I beat Kiba. I was considered not even worthy to become a ninja, and I beat someone who Sasuke could not."

"What are you talking about? You could never beat anyone if Sasuke couldn't!"

"You've forgotten Haku already, Sakura?" Naruto whispered, clearly distressed at the memory. "Haku fought with all he had to protect Zabuza- that is what made him strong. Sasuke fought back with only a desire to prove his worth, he failed. I fought to protect those of Wave and ensure their happiness. What do you fight for Sakura? When the time comes to fight, what will give you strength?"

"I don't need to fight, Sasuke will always protect me."

Naruto sighed. 'what did I do to deserve this?'

"Ok Sakura," Naruto said in a patronizing tone. "Let's say for arguments sake that the suuuper awesome Sasuke had to fight 20 S class ninjas. Now considering his whole family died and he's an awesome Uchiha, I'm suuure he can beat at least 18 of them. But there's still two left," Naruto continued. With a burst of speed, Naruto was behind Sakura, kunai held to her neck. "What will you do then Sakura? There's no Sasuke to help you now, just as he won't be able to help you then. Find something important to you to fight for Sakura." With that, Naruto shunsined away to his training field, too angry to go to Kurenai's apartment and leaving behind Sakura, shaken by everything Naruto had said. Unbeknownst to both of them, they had been watched by a pair of purple haired kunoichi.

The moment Naruto appeared in the field, he rushed at a training post. What if Sakura was right? Naruto kicked and he punched until his anger had drained. Am I really strong enough? Am I worth anything? He collapsed onto the field.

After hours of tormenting himself with questions about his worth, Naruto fell into a fitful sleep. Meanwhile, Kurenai, worried that Naruto had never shown up for his evening lesson, finally went out to try to find him. She checked his apartment, Ichiraku's, and the hokage monument. When she couldn't find him in any of those places, she frantically began searching throughout the rest of the village, finally bumping into Yugao who looked happiest she had been since Hayate's death. Before Kurenai could even ask Yugao if she had seen Naruto, Yugao began telling Kurenai about the conversation she had overheard earlier that day, tears of happiness rolling down her face.

With a lot less tact then she should have used considering her friend's lover had just died, Kurenai interrupted her.

"It's great that Naruto's impassioned defense of us made you feel loved again, but uh, more importantly- we need to find him. Now. He never showed up for his lesson."

Yugao quickly turned serious and asked where Kurenai had checked so far.

"Did you check the training grounds yet?" Yugao asked. "That's where I'd look."

"I'm an idiot." Kurenai said, shunsing off to Naruto's regular field, finding him lying crumpled up on the ground. Not wanting to wake him, she gently picked him up and brought him back to her apartment and laid him on the couch. She sat in a nearby armchair and waited for her young friend to wake up.

"Heeey Kurenai chan," Naruto said, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

Kurenai's eyes narrowed. "Don't you 'hey kurenai' me. Where were you last night?" Kurenai demanded.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head and decided to take a leaf out of Kakashi's book. "eh? I just got lost on the road of life. That's all."

"Don't give me that crap. Yugao saw what happened and told me. It sound's to me like you won that argument with Sakura. So why is it that I found you collapsed in a training ground?"

The calm façade Naruto had been trying to keep up broke under Kurenai's gaze, cutting deeper into him than any knife ever could.

Naruto began in quite voice, almost a whisper, "It's just… what if Sakura is right? People fight all the time out of a desire to protect, and they still die. Hayate died protecting Konoha. Haku died protecting someone precious. They each fought and trained for the same reason's I do, but they lost. How can I say that my reason for gaining power will protect me and the one's I care about, when clearly it doesn't?" Naruto finished, now yelling.

Naruto's POV

I have just two days left until the finals. Just two days before I fight Neji, before I show that fate doesn't exist, before I show that I am strong and no longer a dobe, before I make those precious to me proud.

Day of the Finals:

Walking to the stadium is hard. Everyone staring at me, most hoping for me to lose and fairly sure I would lose. They're all eager to see the demon brat mess up. Too bad for them.