There were only five more months to go until graduation from the academy. Over the last year and a few months, Sasuke had stayed with Naruto in the Kazama compound. The two had a harsh training schedule, but Naruto trained for longer, waking up an hour before Sasuke every day. Naruto had shown Sasuke his Solaris Blade, and explained how he had got it. Sasuke was gob smacked at the appearance of the blade, and he often watched Naruto go through his kinjutsu forms. It was after seeing the blade that Sasuke decided that he too wanted to train in kinjutsu, so the two boys had made their way to the weapon shop. Sasuke had picked a curved katana, and engraved across the blade was the word Vengeance for Sasuke it seemed the right Blade, and Naruto had agreed that it looked cool. The two had overtaken everyone else in the academy. Naruto still held first rank, Sasuke second and Hinata came in third.

Hinata was very good friends with the two boys, and would often come and train with them after school. At first she was shy, and extremely unsure of herself. Now, she was much more confident, and barely ever stuttered.

Naruto had been waiting for this day for the past two months, ever since Iruka-sensei had told them that they were to go on a field expedition outside of Konoha's walls. They were to put themselves into three man cells, and would be released into the training grounds at random intervals. The teams would have to find and fight one another, and the last team standing would win the task.

Naruto, Hinata and Sasuke had decided to go in the same group, and as a result the three had practised every day for the past two months together, and as a result they knew almost all of the strengths and weaknesses of one another. Hinata had amazing chakra control, but the amount of chakra she had was extremely low. Sasuke was a good all-rounder, but he had some problems with chakra control and found it difficult to sense chakra signatures. Naruto was the strongest of the three, but he had obvious weakness in genjutsu, although he had learnt how to break them.

It was finally the long awaited day, and Naruto found himself sitting between Sasuke and Hinata. Iruka stood at the front of the class, explaining procedures; oblivious to the fact that no-one was paying attention. Finally he told them all to get up and that they would be making their way to the gates.

As they made their way to the gates, Naruto and the rest of the class were oblivious to two figures following the class from the rooftops.

They had just been released into the forest, and Naruto could feel excitement inside himself at the thought of the impending fights.

"Hey Hinata," Naruto said, "why don't you activate your Byakugan to see if you can spot any enemies around?" Hinata obliged and closed her eyes a moment, an expression of intense concentration on her face. She opened them and surveyed around them. She suddenly went rigid, and moved to the left so she could get closer to Naruto.

"Naruto-kun, there's a g-group of three men following us. They have a lot of chakra, they are not part of this exercise!" She whispered to him urgently.

Naruto pondered this for moment. "Hinata tell Sasuke about them, but it's probably not anything to worry about, it's probably just a team of Konoha ninjas going out for a mission," he told her carefully. She nodded and fell back to report to Sasuke.

The three picked their way through the forest, pretending they did not know of their followers, however if you had been able to read body language you would have seen the tenseness in their shoulders and the way their hands involuntarily moved toward their kunai pouches occasionally.

Suddenly, the trio swivelled around as they heard a faint rustling in the trees above them. A shinobi jumped down from above. His face was covered by an ANBU mask; however he was obviously not of Konoha, as he had a Rock Village headband tied across his arm. The man was tall, and he had a twin pair of butterfly swords strapped across his back. Simultaneously they heard two loud thumps behind them. Sasuke and Hinata turned to face two other Rock ANBUs who had just landed.

"Kazama Naruto, we have been sent to assassinate you. We hope you understand that any attempt to retaliate from an academy student such as yourselves will be futile. If your friends do not get involved in the proceedings then we will let them go," the ANBU with the butterfly swords stated monotonously.

"Hinata, Sasuke, back up. We don't have a chance against these guys. It would be better if you guys backed up. These guys are the elite. If I recognise those swords on this guy's back correctly, then he's Rock's Silent Assassin. He's a high A-ranked nin in the bingo books. Apparently once he has unsheathed his swords against an enemy, they don't live for much longer," Naruto said grimly.

"W-we will not leave you, Naruto-kun," Hinata stated, Sasuke grunting in agreement.

"Get out of here now! We don't stand a chance. It would be much more useful if you guys went to the closest team or instructor and told them!"

"We don't both need to go for that. I'll stay," Sasuke said firmly, both boys turned there eyes to Hinata, clearly saying they would not take no for an answer. Hinata nodded briefly before turning on her heel and sprinting off.

"Sasuke you should have gone too," Naruto growled, slouching into his position for the Dance of the Rising and Setting Sun. "But, since you're here I'll show you a couple of the things I've held back from you, teme."

"I'm counting on it dobe," Sasuke smirk, slipping into his taijutsu stance too.

"Saishu, go after the girl," the ANBU with the swords said. He qickly drew his swords. The other ANBU started running forward to fight Sasuke. Sasuke went to meet him and the two clashed in a flurry of hands and legs. Sasuke was fairing well considering he was not even a shinobi yet, but he was landing few hits on the ANBU, who was overpowering him in strength and speed. He knew he could not last much longer, and flipped back from the bout, panting slightly.

Meanwhile Naruto and the Silent Assassin were fighting. The two cashed and fought, their movements seemed to form a fiery death dance, as they hit one another repeatedly. Naruto was getting just as many hits, but the Rock nins were hurting s lot more. The nin seemed to concentrating chakra into his fists when he hit. Naruto knew this was a difficult method of taijutsu, that took a long time to perfect, but was very effective. The two moved back for a moment, to regain their breath. The man had a few bruises and was panting slightly, but Naruto was sweating profusely, and he had a few cuts opening on is abused body.

"Your good brat, but how about we get serious. I can see you know some kinjutsu, because of that blade you have across your back. Why don't you pit your skills against mine?" The ANBU drew his butterfly swords, and Naruto drew the Solaris Blade. The blade seemed to gleam in the light, and was a magnificent sight to behold.

The Rock shinobi whistled in appreciation, "I know men that would kill to use a sword like that. How did a kid like you come by that?"

"Family heirloom," Naruto growled.

"After I beat you I guess I'll take that."

"I'd advise you not to do that, I don't think it would accept one such as you," Naruto snarled, his features becoming almost feral for a moment, before he leapt back into the fray with the Rock nin.

Sasuke was fairing badly. He had exhausted himself using jutsus, and had little chakra left. He knew he had one more shot before he was done.

Sasuke picked up a few shuriken from his punch, and hastily flung them at the Rock shinobi, his hands flashing through seals. The Shinobi moved to the side to avoid the shuriken, not noticing that he was now facing a huge number of the projectiles.

"Crap! The brat used Shadow Shuriken!" The Rock nin jumped up to avoid the shuriken, but was still hit by a few. He failed to notice that Sasuke had jumped up in the air too. Sasuke had enough chakra for one jutsu and his hands briefly blurred through some seals, before he cocked back his head and a his favourite jutsu came out of his mouth, the Grand Fireball Jutsu. The Rock nin did not see it coming and was hit by it full force.

Sasuke land on the ground, slumped, and too weak to do anything more. He briefly smiled at his victory over the ANBU. Suddenly he felt a wooshing sound behind him, and felt cold metal pressed against his neck.

"Nice try brat. Since you were such a good opponent I'll let you live," he heard the Rock shinobi whispered. The back of his head exploded in pain, and Sasuke fell into darkness.

Naruto was trading blow for blow against the ANBU, but was finding it difficult to handle both the blades. It did not help that the man was a trained veteran who had used swords for much longer than he. Suddenly Naruto felt a sharp pain from behind and found himself thrown to the ground. He looked up to see the shinobi Sasuke had been facing standing over him. Thinking quickly with desperation Naruto went through some seals quickly and smacked his hands onto the ground. He had used Muddy Entrapment jutsu, and briefly smirked in satisfaction as he saw the ground under the Rock Shinobi's feet turn to mud and quickly turn back to solid, trapping the nin. He quickly pounced and ran the shocked ANBU through.

Naruto had no time to feel remorse for his first kill, as the Silent Assassin attacked him once again. Naruto was by now battered, bruised and exhausted. As such, his defence was now sloppy. His opponent flicked his swords in a whip like motion and the result was an x-mark across Naruto chest, and heavy bleeding. Naruto spat blood as the Rock nin kicked him in the ribs, breaking a few bones, and sending him flying back.

The Silent Assassin sauntered over to him, knowing he had won. "You did well boy," he drawled. "If you had lived on then you could have been great, but you just had to be his son."

The nin raised his swords, preparing for the finishing blow, and Naruto looked up, defiant even in death. The blades came down on him, in almost slow motion, and he watched helplessly.

Suddenly there was a bright white flash around Naruto. The Rock nin watched, his action of killing the boy halted by the spectacle. Naruto suddenly came off the ground. His eyes were closed and he had an exploding aura of white around him. His blonde locks were billowing in the wind. He suddenly opened his eyes. His eyes were the purest white, and they looked towards the nin.

The Solaris Blade lay forgotten at Naruto's feet. The Rock nin was so captivated by the sight, that he did not see a huge group of people sprinting towards them. The group came closer, but stopped when they were close enough to see the sight. Standing there was Iruka and another sensei as well as the whole Academy Class. They all looked in awe as Naruto's ethereal form turned slightly to them, sending them a grin. Suddenly Naruto's hands came together and his look was one of pure concentration. The glow around him intensified. He threw back his head and arms and an almost electric wave of pure white came from his aura, and hit the Rock nin. The nin was thrown of his feet, into a tree. His heart had stopped beating as soon as the white beam had hit him. Promptly, Naruto fell to the ground, unconscious. The group of onlookes ran forward to help him, and rush him and Sasuke to Konoha.

Naruto had been up for a few hours, and woke to find himself in a bed next to Sasuke's. He found that his chest had been bandaged, and he had various hurts on his abused body. Sasuke was on the bed across from his, and was in a slightly better state, only having a bandaged arm.

Over the last few hours Hinata had not left the two boys alone, and they had had a corwd of visitors from the academy. Everyone commented on how cool Naruto had looked, asking him how he didit. Naruto himself did not know, and told them so. He could not remember any of it himself, but everyone had described what had happened t him. The girls had giggled and said how handsome and cool he had looked, and Naruto grinned in response.

Sarutobi walked into the room at that moment, and all the academy students, except for Hinata left the room.

"Hey ojii-san," Narutsaid to the Hokage, Hinata and Sasuke scowling at him for referring to the Sandaime so rudely.

"Hi Naruto. I just thought I should come by to explain a few things about what happened. Do you want me to tell you in private, or do you mind your friends hearing?"

"Go ahead," Naruto said.

"Naruto, you may not know this, but the Kazama clan had a bloodline. This bloodline was called Radiance, and unlike the bloodlines of the other two noble houses, this one had nothing to do with the eye," the Sandaime said, pausing for breath. The three friends looked at the man, interest peaked. "However, there has not been one in your clan to unlock the bloodline in the last 80 years, in fact we had all but thought it was lost. You see, Radiance is the ultimate power, and few have the ability or the skill to unlock it, added to this is the fact that it can only be unlocked in a life threatening situation it is a difficult skill to obtain. However, you seem to have obtained the power!"

Naruto's eyes widened in shock, "You mean I have a bloodline!" Naruto was literally bouncing on the bed in excitement, ignoring his injuries.

"Yes Naruto," Sarutobi smiled, "Radiance has the ability to lessen the impact of blows and to increase speed and power. If you are suffering from chakra exhaustion then it will take away the effects. However, be warned, if you use the ability too much in one stretch your chakra coils can be hurt and you could lose sense of certain nerves. What you did earlier was a very developed stage of the bloodline, in which the user can use the aura as a weapon. I have researched this bloodline, and am amazed by it, but have never had the fortune to see it in action, but that just might change now," Sarutobi said, his eyes twinkling. "Yes, Radiance is definitely the ultimate bloodline!"

I know it was a bit rushed, and probably had some mistakes in it, I'm under a lot of pressure from reviewers to update quick ).

I hope you liked it, and will try to update soon

Satansrogue