Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did, I probably wouldn't be doing this.

AN: Here goes the chapter seven rewrite.

One month later...

"Another bowl please!"

A glare, some slurping, and…

"Bowl please!"

Slurp.

"Bowl!"

Slurp.

"Bowl!"

"Bowl!"

"Bowl!"

"That's disgusting." Sakura scowled at Naruto and Choji as they raced to put down as much ramen as physically possible in a five minute time span. Ino nodded in response, matching the scowl. In the meantime, Kiba was cheering on Choji, while Shino and Shikamaru watched the show silently and Hinata quietly encouraged Naruto. They were all there for more or less the same reason, after all.

The first time that Naruto and Choji had decided to have one of these little "competitions", the older man running the ramen stand and his daughter had been frantic trying to keep up the supply of ramen for the ravenous duo. As a result, they had stated in no uncertain terms that they wanted a little warning the next time the two black holes decided to compete in their shop. But more importantly, Kiba had noticed the spectacle as he passed by, and in a display of cleverness that was rather unusual for him, had subtly started making bets over which of the two would win. Naturally, he felt compelled to bring the rest of the class into the game.

Ino and Sakura personally had no interest in watching the duo gorging, but Sasuke was there to make some extra money while his schedule was empty and if they were going to be following him they figured that they might as well place a bet or two and try to do the same. Shino simply seemed curious as to what his classmates did with their free moments, as he rarely spent time with them outside of the academy, and Shikamaru figured it was an easy way to get paid without having to actually put any effort in to it. Being a genius probably didn't hurt his odds. As for Hinata, she had yet to even place a bet, instead arriving for the sake of spending time with her crush and because it was easier to feel like she was part of the group in these little outings, as compared to when they were in the classroom.

And so there they sat once again, staring at the display with a sort of morbid fascination as the two bottomless pits guzzled and slurped, gulped and burped, then asked for another round. As the two simultaneously reached for another bowl, a dark-haired man dashed into the stand, nearly toppling over Kiba in the process.

"Am I late! Is it over already!" Kiba smirked at him, holding out a hand.

"Nope. Just two minutes in. You betting the usual?"

"Heck yeah!" Shisui Uchiha dropped a few coins into the younger boy's hand, and began cheering Choji on alongside the Inuzuka that he had unofficially dubbed as his gambling rival. Shisui's appearance was more due to a combination of loving Teuchi's cooking and enjoying the "sport" than actually wanting to make any money. After all, Jonin were paid pretty well and he was one of the most skilled members of one of the most prestigious clans in Konoha—the world even—so it wasn't as though he were poor.

Besides, Mikoto had practically ordered him to keep an eye on Sasuke when he was spending any amount of time with the "demon boy" as quite a few of the villagers seemed intent on calling him. Though honestly, he had the feeling that Mikoto held more resentment towards Naruto for being involved in Itachi's departure than just because of his connection to the Kyuubi.

Or, if he felt like being a little more objective, she was unnerved by his involvement. They'd had their fair share of arguments on the matter, and it was easy to see that she found it frightening to think that the Kyuubi might be able to influence or control its Jinchuuriki. An understandable concern really, considering the seemingly random nature of the outburst. But there was something he couldn't quite pinpoint about her actions, something she was hiding from him about her feelings on the excitable vessel of the Kyuubi.

But now wasn't the time for that. Now was the time for the sport of gods. Ramen-off.

Three minutes later, and Naruto dropped backwards off of the stool, while Choji's head hit the bar, both letting out a groan in the process. Ayame, who had been fighting to keep count of the number of bowls that they'd gone through, grinned and raised one of Naruto's arms into the air (albeit with some effort, given that he didn't really want to get up off of the ground), gesturing in a clearly over-dramatic way.

"We have a winner! The challenger has taken the title from our defending champion, with thirty-eight bowls to thirty-six! Let's hear it for Naruto Uzumaki!" And with that, she promptly joined her father in plopping down in the nearest chair for a break. Hosting these little competitions wasn't exactly what one would call an S-Rank mission, but anyone who knew Naruto and Choji realized that trying to keep up with their orders in an eating contest may as well have been a one-on-one duel with the Hokage while your hands were tied behind your back.

The entire booth, save for Kiba, the cooks, and the competitors, let out a disappointed moan. Choji almost never failed to eat more than Naruto. The idea that someone outside of the Akimichi Clan could actually out-eat the seemingly endless pit that was Choji's stomach was unthinkable. And so, with a few grumbles, the onlookers paid their debts to the one person that had actually bet on Naruto: Kiba Inuzuka. As soon as the gamblers and a very cheery—if somewhat bloated—Naruto had left, Choji sat up and turned to the Kiba as he held out a small pouch.

"Here you go. Told you we'd make a killing if you took a dive. And I've gotta treat you to that BBQ. A deal's a deal."

"Actually, uh…I'm pretty full. I could've eaten more, but Uzumaki can really put that stuff down." Kiba's incredulous expression at the admission was, at least in Choji's opinion, priceless.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. I think I'm losing my touch. I'll need to train a bit more."

"…Right." Akamaru, ever-present atop his owner's head, yipped in agreement. Only Choji would actually train himself to eat more. Then again, from what his mother had told him about the Akimichi fighting style, it made a bit of sense, strange as it may have seemed. "Well, I'll treat you to some BBQ anyway. That was a good show."

"Really? Awesome! Later Teuchi-san, Ayame-san!" The two waved at the boys with cheery expressions. Sure, they'd overheard the entire exchange, but they didn't intend to say a word to the others about the little scam. Kids would be kids, and ninja would be ninja. Besides, it just wouldn't do for the contests to stop. They'd known Naruto for years, and now that he finally had a group of friends that would spend that kind of time with him while he did something he enjoyed, they definitely didn't want to interfere. The poor kid needed all the friends he could get.

Not far away, as a certain Inuzuka was preparing to lose a good portion of his earnings, Naruto was sitting cross-legged on the bed in his apartment, sweat trickling across the back of his neck. And he couldn't help but grin in triumph. He allowed the spinning ball of chakra to fade away, dismissed his shadow clone, and wiped his forehead on his sleeve while the orange markings around his eyes disappeared, more than a little pleased with his success. He'd long since mastered the ability to use the standard version of the Rasengan with one hand, and had even managed the same with the Wind Release: Rasengan, but he still couldn't form the far more powerful Rasenshuriken without several of his clones. His rather limiting circumstances didn't help much, as he didn't exactly have many opportunities to practice the Rasengan or any of its variants, and he definitely wasn't going to try tampering with something like the Rasenshuriken while in a small apartment. Hell, he'd be hesitant to practice it in anything short of a desert considering how much damage it could cause if it was successful, never mind the chaos it would cause if something actually went wrong.

Though the shinobi of the village had been somewhat unnerved by the knowledge that he knew of the Kyuubi, a fact that had been kept from the general populace, he no longer had to completely restrict himself. As long as they knew that he could contact the fox, he could play many of his improvements off as things that he'd picked up from the dark presence or that it had explained after having seen them in action itself. So him figuring out basic things such as tree-walking didn't bother his soon-to-be fellow shinobi in the least. And whenever a villager noticed and complained, the Hokage simply told them that he was aware of the situation and that everything was under control. And with Naruto under seemingly constant surveillance from shinobi positioned around the village and his academy teachers, how could they deny that the Hokage most likely did have everything taken care of?

The problem was when it came to techniques like the Rasengan. There were probably less than five people alive who knew the move well enough to actually use it, and he doubted the "I learned it from Fuzzy-chan" excuse would work on that one. It was one thing to figure out how to focus chakra into your feet, or how to move your wrist to better direct a shuriken. It was a completely different matter to master a complex and high-ranking technique only mastered by several Hokage-level shinobi. As a result, he'd been more or less limited to training it in the privacy of his room which, while allowing him to form and reform the chakra repeatedly, still didn't allow him to actually test what it could do. Then again, it was probably a good thing. If he wasn't limited, he would probably end up trying to use the Rasenshuriken, and odds are that he wouldn't be at it long before he was in the hospital again what with the technique's tendency to ruin his arm for a while after he used it.

And so, he worked to remedy one of the most notable drawbacks of his new form. He was far from mastering Sage Mode, but he was getting better. In fact, thinking back on it, the reason he'd probably been killed in the first place was because he'd quit his training early. Despite Fukasaku's warnings, he hadn't been able to stand by when he'd learned that Konohagakure was under attack and had rushed off to help. Unfortunately, this "Pain" had nearly decimated the village before learning of Naruto's location, and had left just moments before he had returned (Though from the state of the village, his incomplete Sage Mode might not have made much of a difference). After slaughtering most of the things at Mount Myōboku, the Akatsuki leader had returned to his headquarters for a short time to recover. Then not a month later he'd returned in full force before he'd had the time to continue working on his Sage powers.

And when he said full force, he meant full force. Having captured the Hachibi during the time between invasions, the Akatsuki was determined to finish their mission. Even with aid from Sunagakure and their unexpected temporary alliance with Orochimaru (Or Kabuto, or whatever the hell he was calling himself at the time) they'd been unable to fend off the full might of the Akatsuki. What was even more confusing was that, while Madara and the Six Paths had clearly been intent on capturing him, Itachi's former partner had been the one to tear him in half from behind with that massive sword of his. And they hadn't seen the plant-like member after he'd stabbed the recently-arrived Sasuke just as the battle was beginning. Or at least, he'd seen nothing more of them. Perhaps Gaara would be able to shed more light on that missing piece of information.

But now, he had the time. He couldn't learn under Fukasaku's tutelage of course, but there were a variety of improvements he could make by himself. For one, mastering the Rasengan was considerably less stressful when he limited the use of his own chakra in favor of the natural energy of the Sage Arts. He'd also quickly realized that he started to lose control of said energy when he attempted to move, which had lead to his current training method.

Shadow Clones.

Somehow or another, when all else failed, his most successful training techniques always seemed to come down to shadow clones. In this case, it had been strangely simple once he'd taken the time to consider the problem. He couldn't gather and use the energy on his own while he was moving, so the most reasonable solution was for someone else, like a clone, to gather it for him. Once he'd successfully managed that, the rest had been relatively simple. He'd concocted a few ideas, but for now his favorite was the decision to transform one of his Sage Clones into a scroll to carry around with him while it gathered energy. He even had a few ideas on how to improve the Rasenshuriken, if he could ever actually get away from the village long enough to try them out. He had no doubt that things would start getting easier once he'd become a shinobi and met Jiraiya. It'd definitely give him the opportunity to "advance" without needing so many excuses and precautions in place.

But for now, he could only work with what he had, and what he had was enough privacy to learn jutsu and work on his chakra control. So with that thought, he left to find Shisui. The man was just about the only Uchiha besides Sasuke that could actually stand him, and he was fully intent on taking advantage of this fact so that he'd have an excuse to train with someone.

Sunagakure

After living in the same village as the redhead for roughly a decade, the residents of Sunagakure had certainly learned at least two things. The first was that Gaara had no "good side" to speak of. The closest thing he had to a good side was more realistically described as a moderately less homicidal side. And the only way to stay on this particular side of him was to make sure you didn't do anything to set him off, and to remain as far from whatever happened to attract his ire at the time as you possibly could. The easiest way to do this was avoid any and all contact whatsoever, given that an action might please him one day, and then that exact same action might send him into a bloody rage the next.

The second thing that most had learned was that Gaara of the Sand did not make requests. He didn't make threats. He didn't make suggestions, demands, or promises. What Gaara of the Sand made were statements. If he wanted into a room, he did not ask that someone move out of his way, he did not warn them to stay out of his way, and he did not order someone to move out of his way. He simply stated that they would move out of his way, or if he didn't feel like addressing them as individuals, that he would be entering the room. If they happened to disagree with whatever his statement might have been, then there weren't many who were willing to interfere with the events that would follow soon afterwards. It was everyone for his or herself, in that scenario.

So when Gaara entered the Kazekage's office, and stated that he would be joining him on his trip to Konohagakure for the meeting regarding the schedule for the upcoming Chunin Exams at the end of the year, which were to take place in Sunagakure, everyone involved knew that he was going to be joining them in Konoha. Despite his power, for one didn't become a Kage without the appropriate skill and strength that was needed for the position, all of the Fourth Kazekage's assassin's had failed to destroy Sunagakure's greatest weapon and he was unwilling to risk his own death in an attempt to destroy the boy. At least, he refused to do so when Gaara's intentions clearly weren't a threat to the village or its occupants at the time.

Glancing up at the Jinchuuriki, he leaned back into his chair, resting his arms on the desk in front of him. He had no intention of showing fear in front of the child, regardless of what they all knew he was capable of. That was an admission of weakness that the Kazekage would be perfectly willing to take with him to the grave.

"And why are you so eager to leave the village all of a sudden, hm?"

"Curiosity." Well that had been somewhat unexpected. Gaara normally responded to him with nothing but a glare, which he generally returned with a sarcastic or biting remark before agreeing with whatever it was that Gaara had said. The boy had seemed a little odd recently. He might just have to look a little more closely into that.

"Very well. But do try to keep yourself under control. I'd hate to deal with the kind of paperwork that would pile up if you threw one of your tantrums in another village."

Gaara's only response was a grunt as he spun around and moved to return to his business. For the last month, he and Naruto had attempted to remain in some limited form of contact, but it was getting problematic. Communicating through letters could always be a risky venture, especially between villages that weren't exactly on the greatest terms, and the Kazekage would certainly notice if his precious weapon suddenly started receiving and sending them out of nowhere. And while Gaara could probably kill any messenger that intercepted one of his letters and attempted to pass the knowledge on to the Kazekage with minimal effort, he would rather avoid the relentless bloodbaths that had once made him a legend in a number of villages. He was trying to change that particular image, and going around butchering people wouldn't exactly speed the process up. No, it was time for him and his fellow Jinchuuriki to reunite in person.

AN: And there goes yet another rewrite. I didn't change much on the Gaara bit because I'm generally very pleased with my Gaara-related scenes. Don't know why.