The next day Naruto rocked up to the meeting fifteen minutes early. Hinata herself was already there and greeted him with her almost ever-present stutter. Sasuke got there five minutes later. Naruto nodded to him and said, "Hey, teme."

"Hn, dobe," Sasuke haughtily said. then he blinked when he saw what Naruto was wearing. And said, "What happened?"

"Huh?"

Hinata said, "I…think…Sasuke-san…is talking about…your clothes." All the while, Hinata was blushing madly, highly appreciative of his new look.

He was wearing the white shinobi pants that he bought at the Yellow Dragon and had a bandage wrapped around his right leg, protecting his skin against the rubbing of the kunai pouch on top of it. The ends of the legs were wrapped in bandages too, which reached past the top of his black shinobi sandals. He was wearing the black shirt that reached just past his elbows. He was also wearing the armguards.

Naruto said, "Yeah, well I was sick of having a bullseye painted on my back and got a sudden influx of cash last week. I also…hey, where do you get your kunai, Sasuke?"

"Hn, you think I'm going to tell you that after yesterday? As far as I'm concerned, you can keep on getting yours at whatever market stall you get them at."

"Geez, I'm not sure how that guy at the Yellow Dragon Weapons Store would take you comparing his work to that of a market stall peddler."

Sasuke thought, 'The Yellow Dragon? It must have been quite a bit more than 'a sudden influx',' figuring that the clothes and armour must have come from there too. He said, "Then why do you want to know where I get mine? The Yellow Dragon is one of the premiere weapon stores in Konoha. Their works should be satisfactory."

"Yeah. He was bragging about that. I just figured that you would be better able to judge the quality of what he's made for me."

"You've bought kunai before. You should be able to do that yourself."

"Yeah, but I've only ever been given bottom of the barrel stuff, and since you're part of the Uchiha clan, who are reputed to have some pretty good skill in shurikenjutsu…"

Sasuke sighed and said, "Fine. Hand one over. I'll tell you what I think."

"Actually…can I see one of yours too?"

Sasuke shrugged and said, "Sure, whatever," and took one of his out at the same time as Naruto. They handed them over to each other and Sasuke and Hinata's eyes widened as they both thought, 'That/This kunai, it's…' Sasuke frowned and said, "Alright, where did you really get this, Naruto?"

"I told you. It was a custom order that I put in at the Yellow Dragon Weapons Store."

"There's no way that's the case!" Sasuke said.

"I assure you, it is," Naruto said, getting annoyed at the continuous questioning of his honesty. He flipped the kunai in his hands and tapped the handle with his index and middle fingers and his thumb. He whispered something as he did before flipping it around and holding it out with the handle pointing towards Sasuke. He said, "So, where'd you get it?" noting that the quality was superior to his own, but figured that it was had something to do with the fact that the techniques that the smithy used were different to those that his previous kunai was, so there were some…deficiencies that made their way into the work.

"It's a supplier that the Uchiha Clan has always used. And that guy that you were talking to was right. It is of a high quality. Although…"

"Althouugh…"

Sasuke tossed Naruto's kunai in the air so that it would flip and then caught it at an odd angle. He thought, 'This kunai… it's balance is off. It's obvious why.' And looked at the spike that was extending out from the base of the handle. He said, "Trust you to come up with the idea of switching to a weapon that you can't use right before the most important fight of our lives."

Hinata said, "Sasuke…-san…Naruto-kun…wouldn't…"

"Hah, don't bother with him Hinata," Naruto said, returning his kunai to its new, specially made holster that had an insert crafted into it for the spikes. He had also taken the time the previous day to mark it with a mass-release storage seal so that he could quickly resupply if her ran out, though at the moment, they were only holding some rather inferior, normal, kunai that he got from Genbu Armoury on short notice. When it got to be seven thirty, Naruto yawned and stretched widely, before saying, "Well, if Kakashi-sensei isn't going to turn up…" as he walked over to one of the large trees. "…then I'm gonna get some shuteye," And closed his eyes after slipping down the trunk of the tree.

As he did, Hinata said, "Umm…Naruto-kun…maybe you shouldn't…" while also trying to sink into herself.

"Why not? He's not here, so there's no real reason for us to be either, right?"

"Well…maybe…but…well…he is out jōnin-sensei…so…we should…do as he says…I think."

"I am here. It's just that my mind won't be," Naruto said and leaned back and spend the next three hours dreaming of bowls of ramen growing arms and legs and doing the cha-cha," prompting a discussion that greatly disturbed the two dōjutsu wielders about what 'the dobe' and 'Naruto-kun' was dreaming about.

Unbeknownst to either of the genin that were actually awake, Kakashi had been watching them for the better part of an hour and was thinking, 'He can't really be asleep, can he?' So he crept closer until he could actually make out a bubble coming from his nose. 'He is asleep! Well, he's certainly got some never, sleeping on the job like that!' He threw a kunai aimed at the bubble that soared between Sasuke and Hinata, who just stared at it as it passed on its way to Naruto.

When it burst through the bubble, Naruto woke up, seeing the handle of the kunai flying in front of him, frowned, reached out to catch it and threw it back at the source. He stoodu p and said, "That's a hell of a way to wake a guy up, Inu," using Kakashi's ANBU moniker.

Hinata saw Kakashi walking towards them, twirling the kunai by its ring pommel. He said, "How did you know it was me?"

"How many shinobi around here have silver hair?" Naruto questioned.

"A fair point I suppose," Kakashi admitted. "But from now on, how about you don't refer to me by that name, hey?"

"Eh, sure, whatever," Naruto agreed, not really caring that much.

At the exchange, Sasuke thought, 'Inu? Dog? Don't ANBU use animal code names? Was this guy a...?! if that's so, then any 'survival exercise that he puts us through is going to be brutal.' He said, "Why are you late again?"

"You see, I…"

"I don't care," Naruto said. "It's just going to be another unbelievable lie."

"I'm shocked Naruto, that you would think that I would…"

"Go on, tell me I'm wrong then," Naruto dared.

Kakashi just shrugged and said, "Moving on…"

Sasuke and Hinata both thought, 'He was going to lie about it!'

"…your test, is this," Kakashi said, producing two bells.

"It's…bells?" Hinata asked.

"Quit screwing around," Sasuke snapped.

"All you need is to get one bell and you're on the team," Kakashi explained.

"But…there is…only two…bells," Hinata said.

"That's right," Kakashi said with a (eye) smile.

"You see, this year there has been a change in the formation of teams and there's going to be only two to a team, so the Hokage has asked all of the jōnin to 'select' two students to become genin."

"What!?" Sasuke demanded as he thought, 'Only two to a team?' and glanced at his teammates. 'I don't want to be on a team with either one of them.' He asked, "What happens to the third?"

"I'm glad you asked Sasuke," Kakashi said. "The one that is left out gets sent back to the academy for another year."

'Back to the academy! There's no way I could live with the embarrassment!' Sasuke desperately thought. 'There's no way I'm not getting one of those bells!'

Hinata was biting her lower lip as she thought, 'Maybe I should give up now. After all, Naruto-kun and Sasuke-san want this more than me…and it's not like father doesn't already know I'm a failure, so…'

Hinata was about to give voice to her thoughts when Naruto's voice brought her out of it. He said, "The hell with that! I don't care who you think you are! I'm becoming a shinobi no matter what! If I get to take you down in the process, that makes it all the sweeter!"

Kakashi said, "I am the rules. So…" and started to tie the bells to his belt. "…come at me like you want to kill me. Otherwise you won't be able to get a bell."

Naruto wasted no time in grabbing a kunai from his kunai pouch and jumped at Kakashi, swiping at his neck. Kakashi grabbed the arm holding the blade and twisted it, turning Naruto around and holding him in place. He said, "Why are you attacking? I haven't even said start yet." He paused for a second to let his words sink in before saying, "Alright, go," and let go of Naruto.

Sasuke and Hinata jumped away into the trees, hiding themselves away in such a manner that they could still see Kakashi. Naruto though, had already made a move and flicked the kunai he'd still been holding at where he'd seen Kakashi tie the bell. Kakashi caught the handle just as the spike was about to cut through the rope. He said, "Well, you are fast. Though I think that you might have the wrong idea," as he saw Naruto standing across from him. Then, he felt the odd balance of the kunai and glanced down at it and saw that, although it had the same colour and feel as the normal Konohan kunai, the design was from Takigakure. He thought, 'So, he had more made, did he?'

Kakashi blinked as he saw a kunai fly just next to the one that he was holding at the bells again. Kakashi batted it away with the kunai in his hand and turned to look back at Naruto, saying, "Why would you try that again?" only to see a smirk before a spark of lightning appeared where the spinning kunai was before he saw Naruto appear in its place. Kakashi frowned and jumped away from Naruto, slashing at the blonde's arm to keep him away from the bells, only for him to swipe through the air as the kunai reappeared where it was, Naruto back where he started. Kakashi thought, 'Hiraishin? No. that's not it. Not with that burst of lightning. Though in this situation it's a good thing it is. If it wasn't, he'd have a bell right now and I'd look rather silly. I'll have to take a closer look at this kunai later,' and watched as Naruto drew two of the marked kunai. He said, "You have a very interesting technique there Naruto. Did you get it from that scroll?"

"No, Naruto grinned. "The Uzufūjin is mine alone."

'Uzufūjin? He's certainly inherited his father's naming sense. And his ability with fūinjutsu apparently,' Kakashi thought as he got a look at the kunai's handle.

Naruto grunted as he glared at the kunai that Kakashi was holding. He thought, 'Damn it! If only he'd let that one go, I could teleport to it, slash the cord, come back here, go back, grab them and then hightail it. As it is, all that will happen is that I'll swap places with him!' Naruto sighed. 'Well, I guess if it was that easy, it wouldn't be much of a test.' He said, "Alright then, Kakashi-sensei, let's you 'n' me have a fair fight!"

While Naruto was thinking, Kakashi glared at the kunai that he was holding when he saw where Naruto's gaze was and thought, 'Can he not teleport to this now? Or wait…' Kakashi remembered the earlier exchange. '…Naruto swapped places with the kunai earlier…Then is it more 'it would be useless to teleport' rather than 'it can't be done'?' He said, "Your jutsu's got one hell of a drawback Naruto."

Naruto grunted, stopping just before he made his move and taunted, "Yeah, well it's going to be more than enough to beat you with!" and made a handseal as he said, "Tajū Gen'ei Bunshin no jutsu!" and the clearing was flooded with clones of the blonde not-yet-shinobi.

While Naruto clashed with Kakashi, Sasuke thought, 'What the heck is this? It's like some kind of twisted nightmare! How the hell did the dobe get that fast? Wait…Kakashi said that it was a technique…and that it had a drawback. But what was i…' his thoughts were broken by the sound of leaves and twigs moving and breaking and he looked for the source to see Hinata, lying on the ground, completely unconscious with a bright red face and a goofy smile plastered on it,. Sasuke rolled his eyes and thought, 'Girls!' before turning back to the fight.

As the clones clashed with Kakashi, it became evident to him that four of the clones were hanging back. He thought, 'So, the real one is hanging back to see what happens, is it, Naruto? Then in that case…' Kakashi waited until some of the clones decided to all leap at him at once and substituted with one of the four and saw it disappear along with most of the clones in the heap. He thought, 'One down, three to go,' as he switched back into the throng.

From his branch Sasuke thought, 'He can use the kawarimi jutsu on people! I'd never even think of something like that, and he did it with the opponent like it was nothing!'

Kakashi did it again, but, this time, he got switched over to one of the outer clones immediately and was forced to switch back into the melee prematurely as a kunai just missed the cord attaching the bells to his belt. As he continued fighting the clone army he thought, 'That was too close there. If that was the first time he saw it, he wouldn't have be able to react to me doing it again so well, which means that he can probable do it too. Not a common skill, and certainly not one taught in the academy. Yūgao must have taught him well. And here I'd thought that Sasuke would be the one that I'd need to watch out fo…!'

Kakashi's thoughts all went out the window when he heard, "Gen'ei Tajū Kunai no jutsu!" and substituted with a log of wood this time, letting all of the clones get destroyed by themselves.

When the kunai had destroyed the clone army, Kakashi walked back out onto the field and said, "I suppose that I probably should have been expecting that at some point, since you are using a jutsu derived from that one." He thought, 'Even so though, using that many clones just as a diversion is a little…excessive. But, if he used it now, then it was probably so I didn't try to switch out with him next.' He said, "…but don't you think that using a jutsu like that is a bit much? This is just a test after all."

"Maybe so, but you did say to come at you with the intention of killing you. So I figure it's a fair enough a tactic to use."

"Hmm…you might have a point there Naruto," Kakashi said, lifting his headband form covering his left eye as he thought, 'If he's willing to use jutsu like that, then I'd better take some precaution. I don't want to die after all.'

XXXXX

In the Hokage's office, Hiruzen looked up from his crystal ball and asked, "So, did you know about this, Yūgao?"

"I knew that he could do it, yes. but not to that extent. That aside, Kakashi using his Sharingan, isn't that I bit unfair?"

"Naruto said it himself, in this, there is no such thing as 'fair', despite what he said before that last clash."

"Even so though, I'd be more worried about Kakashi in this situation. After all, this tactic is just like…"

"I know," Hiruzen said. "That's probably why Kakashi is using the Sharingan. He was 'his' student after all."

"Hu-uhh?!" Iruka exclaimed, not sure what to make of the conversation, being the only chūnin in the room, and not subject to the knowledge of Naruto's heritage.

Hiruzen said, "The reason that Naruto used that jutsu probably wasn't to try and cut those bells from Kakashi, or even to injure him enough to take them himself."

"What do you mean?"

"All those kunai on the field out there have probably been 'marked' with the kawarimi fūinjutsu that Naruto has been using to teleport around the way he has been."

"But that means that…"

"Naruto has control of the battlefield right now," Hiruzen finished.

Yūgao smiled and said, "This is a tougher fight than Kakashi was expecting."

Hiruzen remarked, "You know Yūgao, sometimes I wonder why you are so catty."

"Kakashi was rather mean when I first joined the ANBU. I need to take pleasure in his misery whenever I can. It is so few and far between after a…urk!" Yūgao exclaimed as Naruto suffered the indignity of the One Thousand Years of Death and flew off into the river, rendering Hinata unconscious yet again.

XXXXX

Sasuke thought, 'What the hell kind of jutsu was that supposed to be? I thought that he was supposed to be a jōnin! An elite ninja! Even so though, the dobe deserved it. But, what was that headband covering? It almost looked like a…but that's not possible! I knew all of the Uchiha and he's not one of them. So how? It must just be something similar to it. After all, there are dōjutsu that resemble the byakugan, so I guess it's not impossible. Even so…isn't that trap a little too obvious?' Sasuke finished as he saw Kakashi set up a simple trap that even a first year academy student should see coming a mile…no. a million miles away.

Naruto slowly dragged himself out of the river, running low on chakra after not having breakfast and using his Uzufūjin so much. His eyes widened, seeing a bell on the ground. He thought, 'A bell! Kakashi must have dropped it!' and rushed over to it before hesitating, but it was too late and he was strung up by a rope and started cursing up a storm, reaching out for the bell, but it was just out of his reach, so opened his kunai pouch, thinking, 'If I can just…!' but, to his dismay, all of his kunai fell out of his pouch.

That was when Kakashi appeared and said, "What were you thinking, Naruto? I'd thought that you of all people would have seen that that was a trap."

"I did see it!"

"Then exactly why are you strung up like that?"

Naruto grunted and said, "I did, it was just too late."

Kakashi sighed and said, "A ninja must be able to see underneath the underneath at all times."

Naruto crossed his arms and sighed. He then grinned and said, "I'll show you who needs to 'look underneath the underneath'!" as he tapped a seal on the underside of his forearm guard, releasing a kunai that he'd prepared earlier.

Seeing the kunai, Kakashi jumped away, but that was what Naruto wanted and he reached out with the kunai and Kakashi realised what he was doing and threw the kunai of Naruto's at the kunai Naruto was reaching out with, but it was too late and the kunai touched the bell, which was enough for what he wanted. Kakashi didn't realise though, and was satisfied when he heard and saw the kunai he'd thrown hit the one in Naruto's hand away. But, Naruto grabbed the kunai as it flipped in the air and flicked it spinning upwards, and teleported to it to get out of the trap, coming out of it with one hand on the ground. He tapped his other armguard twice, though Kakashi didn't see it, and grabbed the kunai and threw one of them at Kakashi and the other into the bush and teleported to Kakashi, gathering almost all of his remaining chakra as he did three handseals that Sasuke didn't recognise before saying, "Katon: Karura no jutsu," and breathed a flaming stream at Kakashi from close range, throwing one of the cloned kunai at the cord in a last ditch effort to get the bell from Kakashi as he jumped out of the way. When it didn't work, Naruto used the last dregs of his chakra to teleport to the kunai he'd thrown into the bush while Kakashi retrieved the bell that he'd used as bait.

As Kakashi retied the bell onto his belt, Sasuke bolted, realising exactly what they'd gotten themselves into. Despite the dobe's surprisingly valiant efforts, Kakashi still had both bells and they had none. He had none. So they were headed back to the academy for sure at the rate that they were going. When he found a smallish clearing, he thought, 'Alright, this is as good a place as I'm likely to get in this training ground,' and went about setting up a swinging log trap. When he was done, he thought, 'Okay, that's that done, but it's probably not going to be enough. I need to set something up that will work after he dodges that.' With that in mind, he opened his kunai pouch and, not looking, reached in and felt something strange. He thought., 'What is…' then he looked down and smirked before letting go of that kunai and setting up his trap with most of his other kunai and shuriken.

XXXXXXX

A/N

Attacks

Naruto

Tajū Gen'ei Bunshin / Multiple Phantom Clone

The user streams their chakra throughout their body and forms the seals for the Gen'ei Tajū Kunai and, instead of focusing on the kunai, it makes duplicates of the person using the chakra flowing through the user's body. This uses the same method as the Kage Bunshin, but, due to how Naruto came about creating it, retains the Gen'ei moniker and lacks the memory transfer function

Gen'ei Tajū Kunai / Multiple Phantom Kunai

After throwing a kunai at the target and forming the necessary hand seals, the user can create corporeal replicas of the kunai, turning a small amount of kunai into a large amount in an instant with which to bombard the enemy.

Uzufūjin / Whirling Wind God

A fūinjutsu rendition of the kawarimi ninjutsu. This can be applied by the use of a pre-made tag, or inscribed with the user's chakra. Naruto includes a spark of lightning as a distraction.

Fūnyū no Jutsu / Enclosing Technique

Using this technique, a wide variety of objects and even living things can be stored within scrolls, and can be released when the scroll is opened or meets a specific condition. It is possible to seal ninjutsu into a scroll rather than an inanimate object, person, or even chakra iteslf if the situation calls for it.

Kaifū no Jutsu / Unsealing Technique

A technique used by shinobi to unseal what was sealed within a scroll, or, in some cases, a sheet of paper. There is a mass-release variant of this jutsu that will release many objects at once that uses a chakra amplification seal, limiting the amount of chakra needed to perform it.

Katon: Karura / Fire Release: Garuda

The user breathes a long stream of intense fire, which forms into a flaming dragon. Naruto does not have an affinity for fire release ninjutsu, so will be using this increasingly less as time goes on and he grows as both a ninja, and a person.

Kakashi

Kawarimi / Substitution or Body Flicker

With this technique, users replace their own body with some other object, generally with a block of wood, the moment an attack lands. However, a more advanced method lets the user forcibly switch with another person instead of an inanimate object.

Hiraishin / Flying Thunder God

He didn't use it, but he did refer to Minato's space-time teleportation jutsu when comparing it to Naruto's technique upon first seeing it, but quickly realised that there were some readily identifiable differences between the two. Because of this, he easily figured out that Naruto's jutsu was using a fūinjutsu application of the Kawarimi no jutsu rather than a space-time fūinjutsu.

Sidenote

After one of the attacks on his life, Naruto asked Hiruzen for some one-on-one training, but was denied, claiming that it would reek of favouritism, calling into question some of his other orders, which, as Hokage, could not be countenanced and would be viewed as treasonous. Unbeknownst to Naruto, it was because Hiruzen was under pressure from the council at the time for him to place Naruto under Danzō's care and tutelage in ROOT, which he was vehemently against. A week later, Naruto snuck into the shinobi library and searched through the scrolls until he saw a scroll with a swirl on it that told him of some of the history of the Uzumaki clan, and then started searching for everything that he could find on fūinjutsu. It was far from his last trip to the library.