Chapter 4

"...Nice...place..." stated Naruto, observing the intricate and no doubt expensive decorations.

"So, where do I sleep?" he asked.

"This estate was designed as a self-contained ecosystem for the Uchiha clan, so as to not need or facilitate village contact in the event that village relations became negative. Ergo, there are over 20 houses on this property, and I occupy only one room of one house. Everything else, feel free to use at your luxury, unless told differently by me. Now, goodnight." Sasuke explained on his way up the winding marble staircases.

"That's it? Not even a tour?"

"A tour takes time, time that 'd much rather spend sleeping. You'd better get some sleep too. We wake up at 6:00, sharp. We've got a lot of training to do."

"6 O' CLOCK!? Yeah, sure I'm getting up that early in the morning. You'll have to throw a bucket of ice water on me before I wake up." Naruto replied mockingly.

"Ok, but don't sleep with your mouth open." Naruto chased after him up the stairs, saying, "What's that supposed to mean?" He followed him up to Sasuke's room, which was filled with tons of gadgets, most pryed open and dismantled, others charred and out of working condition. There was a very powerful looking computer on top of a metal desk on the opposite side of the room, which looked like it had been dismantled, disected, and modded many times. Next to it was a large library of scrolls and research books. All around the room were awards and the Uchiha emblem. On his nightstand was a picture of a younger Sasuke, and what appeared to be his family.

"Don't touch that!" said Sasuke, grabbing the picture out of Naruto's hands. Naruto realized why Sasuke was hurting on the inside.

"You must really miss them, huh?" said Naruto.

"You have no idea." replied Sasuke. Naruto saw a sliding door leading to a connecting room. He decided to see what it was, since Sasuke was distracted with the picture. Through the door was a small, completely metal room. There were no windows, and there was one small red lamp in the farthest corner. The only thing in the room was a small desk, cluttered with ingrediants, herbs, vials, and blueprints. There was a tiny roll of paper, shaped like a sphere, hovering over the desk.

"Oooh, what's this?" asked Naruto, touching the orb. It began to glow and kanji appeared on it. Sasuke was finally aware of what was happening, and became quite pale.

"NO, DON'T-"

BOOOM!!

Naruto came flying out of the room, covered in smoke and ash, destroying the door and Sasuke's wall. Luckily, he didn't break anything valuable, just the wall and whatever data Sasuke had gathered on those blueprints and ingrediants. Popping out of the rubble, Naruto exclaimed, "That was awesome, can I do it again!?" Naruto ran back to the chemistry lab, but was stopped by Sasuke grabbing the back of his shirt.

"No skippy, you've caused enough damage. It's time to go to sleep, so go find a room and leave me alone." With that, Sasuke tossed him out the door and removed his new weights. Exerting all that chakra tired him out considerably. He took off his usual attire, deciding to sleep in his new jumpsuit. He had a restless night, since his dream kept reverting to Naruto blowing everything up, and since a lot of the things that Sasuke kept around were dangerous and explosive, that could very well happen. He awoke early enough to make breakfast for the two of them. This breakfast consisted of a special concoction that Sasuke came up with a few years ago that supplied all of the nutrients and stuff that the body needed for breakfast. Unfortunately, it commonly turned the tongue green for about half an hour. With breakfast made, Sasuke went off to find Naruto. Having no idea where Naruto decided to sleep, he looked in every room of the estate, and sure enough, he was in the last room of the last house.

"Did you pick this room just so you could waste my time and get more sleep?" asked Sasuke. An incoherent 'Unfmmrarajara' was his response.

"I'll take that as a yes." So, keeping good on what they discussed the day before, Sasuke dumped a bucket of ice water on Naruto. Luckily, he slept with his mouth closed. Naruto instantly woke up, kicking and screaming.

"I said 6 o'clock sharp. You've already wasted 20 minutes, so eat up and get ready, because we're training even harder now." said Sasuke. Naruto looked down at the...thing that Sasuke handed him. Deciding he was too tired to ask questions, he just gulped it down. It was rather intense, since Sasuke had intended it to be eaten like a regular breakfast and not all at once. After the very strange taste, Naruto felt rejuvinated. He got up, not bothering to have changed the night before, so he was ready. They went out to Sasuke's personal training field, which was filled with chopped, distorted, and burnt down tree trunks, and a small army of training dummies scattered around.

"Let's start with some light sparring. No weapons." stated Sasuke, earning a groan from Naruto. "All right, BEGIN!" And before Sasuke could continue, a smoke bomb distorted his vision, blenketing the surroundings.

"Oh, so you're gonna hide, are you? Then I guess I'll seek." mocked Sasuke, trying to hone in on his chakra signal. Before he could, Naruto tackled him from behind, trying to throw him, but not succeeding. Sasuke just laughed, followed by him punching Naruto in the face, disorienting him. He ran in for another punch, but this time Naruto poofed away. 'A Shadow Clone?' he thought. He was proven right when two Narutos pushed him down onto two other ones that tried to launch Sasuke into the air, again unsuccessfully. 'I guess these weights have some unseen benefits.' thought Sasuke. He used substitution jutsu, followed by Phoenix Flower Jutsu to fire small, precise fireballs at each Shadow Clone. Once all of them were gone, Sasuke was able to hone in on the faint chakra signal. 'Those Shadow Clones must have worn him out.' realized Sasuke. He threw a kunai at Naruto's position, knocking him out of the only tree in the field with leaves left.

"I win." exclaimed Sasuke. He noticed that Naruto was out of breath.

"That jutsu is forbidden. Where did you learn it?" inquired Sasuke. Smirking, Naruto answered, "About a year ago, I stole the Scroll of Sealing from the Hokage's Mansion. It was pretty simple, I just used my Sexy Jutsu to get passed everyone. I gave it back afterwards."

"Hmm, interesting. Now get up, we're not done training." replied Sasuke. They continued until 8:40 A.M. They each learned a little from the other, and they each became stronger by the end of the session. They had won equally. Sasuke would win once, Naruto would win once, and they kept this balance throughout. Sasuke almost didn't have to exert chakra anymore just to move, though he was still significantly impaired by the weights. It would be at least a month or two before he really started to gain speed and strength from the weights. Either that, or his leg muscles and arteries would internally shred to pieces, paralyzing him permanently and most likely killing him very painfully...he was hoping for the former. Naruto became more creative with his Shadow Clones and learned how to better predict an opponents movements. They were both incredibly beat from all the training. They lied down for just a moment. Naruto almost fell asleep, but Sasuke was reenergized in just a few moments.

"Come on, we have to go or we'll be late!" said Sasuke. Naruto refused to get up, but when Sasuke grabbed his hand to pull him up, he instantly felt alive again. Unbeknowst to the both of tthem, a surge of red chakra had just entered Naruto's body when they came into contact...

"Haha, I am victorious!" yelled Naruto as he arrived at the Hero's Memorial Stone before Sasuke. They had a race from their house to the Stone, and Naruto had (barely) won. In the middle of the race they started using jutsu against each other, which frightened the civilians of Konoha.

"Don't get all high and mighty, you only won because I'm wearing weights as heavy as an elephant's ass on my legs." replied Sasuke. Naruto frowned.

"You always got to ruin things, don't you? It's like your body needs the things around you to be ruined."

"You're the one that ruins things, I just step in and do it better than you. Just like everything else."

"Oh hardy har har, say what you want, but I won as many battles as you did."

"Yeah, and I don't see anything strangling the life out of your legs."

"There you go, you're ruining things again." The boys would have continued this mock battle had they not seen Hinata and their sensei walking up to the Memorial Stone.

"Good, everyone's here. Now I can tell you all my exciting news. Today we will accept our first official mission!" exclaimed Minato-sensei with enthusiasm. Naruto whooped and hollered with excitement. Hinata just stood there, twiddling with her fingers, as always. Sasuke was the only one out of the 4 that seamed to realize 1 important fact.

"Sensei, we are only Genin. Doesn't that mean that we will only be allowed D-ranked missions, and rarely, C-ranked missions?" asked Sasuke, causing Naruto to immediately stop his dancing.

"Sasuke, don't be so negative. While these missions may not be your definition of 'exciting', 'necessary', or 'worth your time', they are still missions that help your village to grow and prosper, as well as your wallet. Plus, this is your first step into the ninja world, so be proud!" explained Minato-sensei. Naruto resumed his dancing after hearing the short speech. Sasuke sighed, giving up.

"All right, let's go rescue a cat, or whatever the devil it is they make us do these days..."