Birth of a Legend: The Fox Druid

by DarkHeroOrion

A true force of nature arises from the lowly roots of Konoha. This child, a scion of noble birthright, is ironically shunned by his deep-seated burden. Follow along as our coming-of-age hero grows through the test of adversity and new challenges.

18. Training Daze: Part II

Chapter Eighteen: Training Daze (Part II)

In a secret satellite base stationed due north of Konoha, yellowish-gold eyes shifted around in the darkness, somewhat unfocused due to a previous affliction cast unto them.

Orochimaru rubbed at his face to shake off the distorted vision as he thought about the incident back in the Forest of Death.

He could have easily killed those pesky genin if he had the opportunity, but in order to remain anonymous for as long as possible, unleashing a technique that had the potential to level a good portion of the forest would have easily had his handiwork written all over it and gave him away, instantly. He detested holding back, but his curious nature urged him to bear witness to those unique jutsu. It excited him to the point of ecstasy to see something…so exotic and fascinating to observe and examine with a fine-toothed comb.

The Sharingan popped up first in his inner musings while he wistfully gazed at the burning candles in the low-lit chamber. It was such a pristine gift from the gods!

'If only Danzou had not hogged them all…' he bitterly reflected, murderous intent steadily increasing as his presence filled the empty room.

Somehow, that emotionless drone managed to con him out of the sacred doujutsu. Where was his fair share?

He lightly shook his head. There was no need—nor was it the right place—to act like a bratty child who did not get his way. The Hebi-sennin was far above that; the power vested in him by the summoned snakes at his disposal proved that he was a man of thought and action. He wanted to watch the world burn while he, sitting atop his throne, witnessed the carnage from below and record the techniques thrown from all sides until the end of days.

The Legendary Ninja found it rather interesting that his right hand, Kabuto, aborted the mission to kill dear Sasuke-kun to foil his own. Was the young ninja toying with him while hanging a sword of Damocles above his seat of power, waiting for it to drop on him so he could usurp all that he has built?

'The boy is a lifetime too early to surprise me…kukuku…'

He let the boy have his fun on his long leash, but when it came to his top-priority objectives, they were no laughing matter…

His mind's eye turned its clouded gaze to a subject of crystal-clear ire and simultaneous wonder…Uzumaki Naruto…

The boy was a chip off the old block that was his irksome father, no doubt. To deny the obvious facial features and strikingly familiar blond hair and blue eyes would mean deluding oneself into thinking that the fox forced the boy to resemble close to the village's dead hero, which was flat-out preposterous…

That was in the boy's genetic code. Nothing more and nothing less…

No wonder he decided to depart from that stagnant village of idealistic viewpoints and blind hypocrisy…

'Praise the martyr, but use his son as the scapegoat…What an ironic twist. The villagers can't look past their prejudices and stupidity to see the truth…' Slowly, and steadily, the timbre of his hollow chuckles crept through the chamber like a frigid wind carrying an ominous foreboding. 'If I had a conscience, I'd pity the fools…kukuku…'

Nevertheless, the boy was proving to be more of a thorn in his side, but, in that same breath, it would mean that he would prove to be a pain in the derriere to the ninja who wanted to hunt him for the beast of burden sealed in his gut. Having the key to the Senju bloodline painted a broader target on the boy's back, and Orochimaru had a quiver of arrows and a hunter's bow, just for the occasion…

He frowned as he glanced down at the nubby stump that was his right forearm.

'Yes…Very troubling, indeed…'

With a little rest and relaxation, he would recuperate when things fell into place. On that, there was no doubt.

The wraithlike flame burning the wick felt out of focus when the master snake-charmer gazed into it, forcing him to rub his eyes, yet again.

Haruno Sakura, once thought to have been a non-factor in his grand scheme, managed to intrigue him very much. A fellow genjutsu user started to blossom from the Hidden Leaf Village…

No pun intended.

He had gotten data from his ashy-haired assistant that the pink-haired girl's style of genjutsu appeared very lifelike and with realistic effects.

'Her skills have taken a turn to my liking.' He licked his lips in growing excitement. To strike him subtly from the blind side caused her to become a blip on his radar. These youjutsu, as they had theorized, proved to be worth their weight in pursuing further endeavors. 'Another branch of genjutsu to investigate at a later time, I suppose…'

From the selection of able bodies, the blond nuisance was out of the question, even though usurping his body might have allowed him to suppress bijuu, which would easily reconfigure that bull's-eye to his direction. That did not factor in the Kyuubi no Youko and his intolerant behavior toward him. 'And to think that fellow demons look out after one another…'

What did that make him, then, if not a demon in a human's body long since withered away and transformed into a higher state of perfection? An immortal among men that transcended the tests of time through his forbidden techniques?

It mattered not, in his opinion. He could try to work over the rosette-haired kunoichi, but he already snatched the body of a woman prior to entering the Forest of Death. It was time to swap out for another male body.

Hey, the Snake Wizard had his choice to cycle genders in his body-snatching quest for the perfect one…almost like trying to find the proper attire that suited any and all of his wants, desires, and wishes. Time was no object for him; lesser men could ill afford it.

That left the only viable choice; his original choice with what he had in mind…

However, he mulled it over and thought that putting his eggs in one basket would cost him in the long run if he invested too much time in driving the last Uchiha away from Konoha and into his welcoming embrace with the promise of power. That left a few contingencies in place, if his initial plan failed and backfired. That was, if Sasuke-kun managed to overcome the willpower of the Ten no Juin…

Orochimaru had to pause and think on that. He gave the three, in his hasty getaway, a lesser grade of the Cursed Seal of Heaven from his slithery brethren instead of administering the complete formula from his own fangs. He would have to rectify that, post-haste.

Either way, he would let those three children have their inflated egos…for now…

When their guard was down, the cornered serpent would coil back and strike with a nasty vengeance…

A few raps on his door alerted Orochimaru of his…guest…

"Please, come in," the Ninja of Legend intoned with a slithery hiss.

XXXXXXXXXX

Naruto kept a critical gaze on his new instructor, even though he unknowingly met the man some time ago. He found it odd that he got tossed from a Tokujou to an ANBU Jounin. He considered that the upgrade was greatly appreciated from the old man.

As he got whisked away by this Yamato guy to one of the open training fields, instead of the hot springs—thank the gods!—the wood-producing ninja wondered why the fox kit tagged along, so he asked the boy.

"Nobody else's home right now," the blond answered in Doshaburi's defense. "Besides," his eyes upturned into U-shapes, "I wouldn't want to have Dosha-chan chew on all the furniture."

'That's Kakashi-senpai's student, all right…'

"…Fair enough…" the now-unmasked ANBU operative neutrally intoned before looking around. "This will do for now." Tenzou took out the notes that Ebisu had written down for Naruto's lesson plans. He frowned and tore them to shreds.

The blond boy could only look on in open shock. "Wh-what are you doing?" he asked with a loud voice.

The Mokuton-infused ninja heaved a long sigh, tossing the paper confetti in the wind. "His training routine for you…was subpar and inadequate for us to use," he dully replied. "All he had for you was leaf-floating while treading water. That will not get you the desired results." A moment of clarity passed through his mind. "In fact, I believe I have something better…" He turned to the awaiting blond. "You…might want to stand back…"

When he saw Yamato-sensei clasping his hands into the Seal of the Tiger, Naruto jumped back a significant distance before the earth started to roil from underneath him. Suddenly, a rocky cliff face sprouted up, with the young man riding atop the precipice. That was soon followed up by a torrent of gushing water that poured over the newly-made rampart of earth with three hand seals: Boar, Dog, and Ram.

"Whoa…" Naruto's mouth hung loose and agape, breathless and speechless. He really wanted to learn those jutsu.

"Any wider, and flies might fly right in, Naruto-kun," the short-haired brunet flippantly commented.

The ANBU jounin looked like a speck from Naruto's perspective. "What were those jutsu, Yamato-sensei? I really want to learn them!"

"In due time, Naruto-kun," he casually responded, "but, in the meantime, we'll work your way up from here…" The irony was lost on the blue-eyed shinobi as he fixedly gawked at the roaring cascade. Clearing his throat to get the boy's attention, Yamato continued. "First, I'm going to have you muscle around your chakra for this exercise."

Naruto then gave his temporary mentor a questioning look. "Muscle around…my chakra?"

The dark-eyed jounin nodded. "Yes. Just like the muscle fibers in your body, you have to flex your chakra once every so often, to keep your body balanced and in tune with itself. Your problem is that you are not in perfect harmony, and this training may set you in the right direction." His face thinned out into a serious demeanor. "Bear in mind, though, that this won't happen over a few hours…or in one night."

'I'm curious, now…' "And what will you have me do?"

Yamato smiled, pointing down. "See the little lake below?"

Naruto frowned before giving the other ninja an incredulous stare. He could not be serious. "I know how to walk on water, damn it!" His patience started to wear thin.

Before the blond knew it, the elite ninja soared over the waterfall and gracefully landed with a little thud, right in front of him.

"Before we start, however, I'd like you to know that I'm nothing like Kakashi-senpai…" His visage darkened, but the scary face appeared more humorous than frightening. "I'm not above using fear to keep you in line, so, don't test me…"

Sweat started to pour off Naruto's face by the cupfuls as he cowered in fright. 'That…that face…it's scary…'

"My, this amuses me so…" the Kyuubi murmured before a side-splitting laughter pounded in the blue-eyed genin's mind.

The wood-conjuring ninja's face brightened up to its normal state, once more. "Now that I have your undivided attention, allow me to finish what I wanted to say."

'Note to self: don't piss off Yamato-sensei…' he errantly mused.

The bellowing guffaw from his caged tenant did little to settle his nerves. "You tickle my funny bone, Naruto…hinhinhin…"

"As I was saying," Yamato began, "to reconfigure your energy, to match the conditioning of your body, you are going to walk on water…using only your hands…"

"…" Naruto owlishly blinked. "…Are you serious?"

"Yes…" Yamato's face comically darkened around his cheeks, chin and eyes. "…unless you have a problem with that…"

Chills ran up and down Naruto's spine like a swarm of insects. "N-No, not a problem at all!" he squeaked.

"That's what I like to hear." The genetically-altered shinobi's mood lightened up. "Now, this serves a fundamental purpose: it stabilizes your body while I have you do something with your feet." He then rubbed at his cheeks. "Speaking of that, take off your shoes. You won't need them."

Naruto knew it was best to not protest and comply. He did just that and left them a few meters from the training site, neatly arranged, along with his black jacket. "So, what'll you have me do with my feet, Yamato-sensei?"

Said shinobi rubbed under the material lining his chin in thought. "Wait for just one moment." Clasping his hands together into the Seal of the Serpent, which consisted of all four fingers interlocking with thumbs parallel to one another, Yamato conjured a tree with abundant foliage right next to him, which also doubled as a shade during his leisure time…er, his surveillance spot while the boy trained. "Take about four leaves from this tree."

'I still question as to why he doesn't walk a few meters to the forest and pick out a few leaves for me…' he mentally grumbled as he walked to do some leaf-picking.

"This jounin is probably as lazy as the one-eyed copycat, boy," the fox offhandedly remarked, examining his nails in disinterest.

'Either way, he still does it with so much ease. I wonder how he managed to cope with Mokuton after it had been integrated in his system as a kid…' Did he harbor a grudge against Orochimaru for what he had done to him? He would have to ask him later.

The older man's voice brought him out of his wandering thoughts. "You are going to free-float those leaves with the soles of your feet."

"Huh?" He did not fully get it. He was a bit slow on the uptake. "How am I going to do that?" This routine was new to him—alien, even, in terms of approach.

"Well," Yamato began to explain, "like juggling, you are going to cycle and rotate the leaves in a smooth rhythm."

"May I ask why will that help me in the long run, Sensei?"

"By keeping rooted with your hands," Yamato held out his open palms for emphasis, "this allows your feet to synchronize with the changes within you. In other words, with the bottom half of your body upside-down, you can find equilibrium and balance with your chakra. Does that make sense, Naruto-kun?"

The boy stood in place, nonplussed, despite the bump in intelligence granted to him by the odd fox in his gut. "No, not really…"

The personal trainer scratched the side of his face with his right forefinger. "Well, you're expelling your chakra energy from both directions. In a way, think of a sack of grain. What happens when you turn it upside-down?"

"Gravity takes over as the grain sifts to the other end," Naruto answered, pointing out the obvious, before the idea locked into place. "Oh! So, you mean to tell me that I'm going to balance my chakra with respect to gravity?"

"It's a stretch in theory," the brunet remarked, "but you're sort of correct."

"Sort of?" Naruto looked down in the mouth. "You mean…I'm wrong?"

Yamato waved his hands in a defensive gesture. "Oh, no, not at all. It's just that…with your…status, this hasn't really been done before. We're just winging it." He had the nerve to appear sheepish.

The whisker-marks silently grumbled. 'A shot in the dark, then…' "Well, no time like the present, then…Let's do the damn thing!"

XXXXXXXXXX

One hour passed by, and Naruto growled in frustration. After countless tries, he only ended up soaked to the bone and heavily panting on dry land. 'This is so aggravating!'

"How are you feeling, Naruto-kun?" Yamato asked while hovering over the boy.

"This…sucks…" the blond uttered through harsh breaths. "It's hard to do…" Sure enough, fine-tuning his chakra to match the physical conditioning of his body proved to be very, very difficult.

"Well, I told you that before we started," the Mokuton-wielding ANBU agent supplied rather helplessly, arms crossed over his chest, "but did you listen to me, at all? No…"

He really wanted that Yamato guy to put a cork in it. He got the point…

He sucked…really bad.

"Okay…So, what am I doing wrong, Yamato-sensei?" Naruto all but grated out, still splayed out on the ground.

"Obviously, you're not focused enough," the brunet kindly deduced as he pursed his lips. "Just…go with the flow…"

'Go with the flow…' The blond demon vessel chewed on that for a moment as he regained his breath and composure. He let a small grin burst onto his face. "I think I get it, now…"

He got up on his two feet again, feeling a bit dizzy, but was otherwise fine. The Kyuubi's jinchuuriki walked up to the pond to gaze at his reflection…and frowned a bit, his good mood deflating a slight amount.

'Hey, Kyuubi-sensei…'

"I thought I told you to not call me that, brat," he snipped, fangs showing.

'…When will I ever return to normal?'

"You just have to find harmony—"

'I'm not talking about that!' Naruto mentally shouted. 'I mean…my face. When will I go back to being human again?' He now saw a walking freak of nature with his pointed ears, his slit pupils, his fanged teeth and his shaggy, mussed-up hair. The boy examined his hands as if they were foreign to him; almost as if he really looked at them the first time. He wanted to do away with all that. 'Is there any way I can revert back to my normal features?' Beforehand, back at the Wave Country, he thought the changes were cool. Now, after his ordeal in the Forest of Death, his outlook turned a bit pessimistic. He felt that things were spiraling out of his control.

"Hmm…Well, there is a way, but I don't feel that you are ready, just yet, for that," the carmine phantom cryptically remarked. He then cut off his warden before he got in a word, edgewise. "Before you start yelling, know this: it is for your own good. Otherwise, you will most assuredly die if you were to go through with it right now, as you are—ill-equipped and not 'ripe,' so to speak."

Naruto really did not like being told what to do, but he bit his tongue and growled. 'Fine…'

"Clear your mind, Naruto," the vulpine bijuu advised. "Be at ease for this training exercise. You're thinking too hard. Just…relax…and follow the way. All that other stuff that's weighing down on your mind, you have to let go. Focus is your key issue."

The blond ninja had to smile. 'Thanks…I guess…' He needed someone to snap him out of his funk. There was no need to wallow in what had already happened. Instead, he needed to pick up the pieces of his predicament and carry on, like always.

"Don't mention it, brat," the Kyuubi haughtily remarked. "I'd rather see you cheerful and bright, instead of dark and gloomy…like that Uchiha runt…"

'Heh…You sure know how to push my buttons, fox.' Calming his breathing, and grunting for good measure, Naruto got to work as he started to perform a handstand on dry land before testing out a few taps on the pond below the cataract.

"I aim to please…" He did his best with imitating a very mocking bow. The boy lost cool points in his book for screwing things up, and leaving it to him to fix the situation at the cost of disrupting the balance of his body. Granted, the Kyuubi surmised that he had a hand in prodding the boy to attack Orochimaru rather foolhardily, but he would make up for it…later.

Somehow, the little runt managed to grow on his chakra-based hide, but he adamantly refused to admit that to him, at all. That was tantamount to swallowing his pride and telling the boy that he liked him.

'I swear I'm getting too soft…'

XXXXXXXXXX

Several hours later, Yamato kept silent while the young genin managed to rapidly adjust to the training exercise. He still fell in from time to time, but, on the whole, the boy's drive to stay afloat made an impression on him.

Naruto-kun still had a frustrating time with regard to juggling the leaves over the soles of his feet, though. He tried to float the leaves as he carried himself over the small aquatic body, but in almost every attempt, Naruto lost his handling and fell in, head first. He wanted to laugh at the blond's expense, but that would only discourage him from succeeding in the impromptu training method. The kid thrived on good compliments that stroked his ego.

'Maybe he'll finish this by the end of the week…' He took a lazy glance at the position of the sun. 'Hm…Four-thirty, already?' He yawned a bit before righting himself up, under the shade of the tree he conjured. "I think we should call it a day, Naruto-kun. I see that your handling of this training routine is going rather well, all things considered."

The village's scourge merely spat out water for the umpteenth time and grumbled.

"How about a friendly, little wager, then?" the Mokuton-infused ninja asked in kind.

Naruto's pointed ears twitched, his head keeping afloat above the manmade lake. "I'm listening…"

"I'll buy you ramen for a week if you can master this exercise in less than seven days." A grin threatened to split the boy's face in half, burning determination invigorating him anew. 'That's one hell of a motivator, it seems. Is that all he ever thinks about?'

Yamato let loose a large mouthful of air. If it got the boy over his personal obstacle, then he guessed it did not matter what inspired him. On the other hand, a feeling of dread lined the inside of his pockets…

He was probably going to be dead broke when the boy followed through on the small bet.

XXXXXXXXXX

The son of Konoha's White Fang stared up at the waxing crescent moon in deep thought, rubbing his clothed chin in the process.

He stood atop the flat roof of Konoha Hospital for the last few hours, contemplating some of the roadblocks that managed to present themselves as a cool breeze wafted through the village to balance out the mild heat from this afternoon.

'Yakushi Kabuto…Just what are you really after?'

The son of the head medic of Konoha Hospital constantly found his way into the Copy Ninja's musings in a pervading manner. What was his reason to taunt him and almost slice open Sasuke's neck? Furthermore, how come that kid was strong enough to kill less than a dozen ANBU—that he personally assigned to guard his pupil's room—like mere cannon fodder; like chuunin?

'There's something going on,' he reflected as his visible eye kept upward. 'I feel that there's another possible threat of attack. The question of the matter is…when and where will they strike, next? And are they already planning something within our walls?'

"You seem distracted, Kakashi; more than the usual, in fact."

The gruff voice made the ashen-haired assassin turn away his focus on the zenith to the newcomer.

Standing with a knee propped up on a ventilation shaft was a tall man with a wild mane of spiky, white hair that extended past his shoulders as lengthy bangs, and down to his waist as a ponytail. His ornate garb reminded Kakashi of a thespian extracted from a kabuki-style play and made into a very strong and capable shinobi. The olive-green of his hakama and short-shirt kimono, along with the red of his cloak, clashed with the cerulean night, but his forehead protector, which had odd horns jutting out of it and had the kanji for 'oil' engraved in the dead center, gleamed in the available moonlight.

Kakashi's exposed orb widened in realization. How did he get here? "Jiraiya-sama, you've returned!"

"In the flesh, kid," the Toad Hermit commented, forming one of his special poses—knee bent in, hopping on one foot and one hand out, palm openly exposed. "The Village's Madness has returned to grace your presence, once more!"

The Copy Ninja's lone eye became lidded in boredom again. 'So over the top, as per his style…'

"What brings you here to Konoha? I'm assuming that this isn't a coincidence." He folded his arms over his chest and rested his head against the shaft a meter away from the Legendary Ninja.

"The shadows are creeping about," Jiraiya mysteriously remarked in coded talk, goofiness instantly chucked aside, "and a storm is quickly approaching…"

"You feel it, too, don't you?"

The elder ninja nodded. "I've been keeping tabs on Orochimaru, but for the moment, he's keeping a low profile."

The Copy Ninja felt that there was more that the wild recluse needed to say. "There's…something else you want from me, sir?"

True to form, the white-haired 'Super Pervert' walked up and closed the distance between the two. "How's…Naruto doing, by the way?"

Kakashi took note of the forlorn look that came and went on the Toad Sage's face when that name got brought up. "Funny you should say that. He said to me that, whenever he meets this 'Jiraiya' person, that he'd show him a thing or two."

"Oh?" Then, the geta-wearing shinobi allowed a mirthful chuckle to escape his lips. "He probably doesn't like my works very much, right?"

"…You could say that…" Why did his charge show so much hate to perverts? One would think that he had a feminine side…or maybe he just defended women's rights in the Elemental Nations. Who knew? 'Meh…Not my problem, I guess…'

"He's growing up." Jiraiya's face then contorted into a deep frown. "It seems that the fox has its grips locked tightly onto him. I saw what it's done to the boy, and quite frankly, I don't like it."

"…Were you spying on him when he was training with Ebisu?" the Copy Ninja inquired. It was not like Jiraiya-sama led a proactive lifestyle with the boy. He supposed that it went both ways between master and pupil. Some time ago, the Sandaime Hokage and the Toad Hermit had a bit of a falling-out that had driven the latter to pursue his spy network abroad. Kakashi was not privy to the details of the argument, but he knew that things came to a head before Jiraiya-sama stormed off.

Jiraiya merely shrugged his shoulders, neither confirming nor denying it. He wanted to keep tabs on Minato's legacy, despite the fact that it came with a lot of red tape. Alas, there was no crying over what had already taken place. Hiding away the pain, Jiraiya snickered a bit. "About that…it looks like your assigned tutor for the boy got overturned by Sarutobi-sensei."

A look of disbelief passed through Kakashi's facial features. "You can't be serious…"

Jiraiya willed a serious nod. "I'm afraid it's true, Kakashi. The old geezer pulled rank on you and withdrew Ebisu in favor of one of his ANBU operatives overseeing the boy's training."

"But, why would he rescind on the documents I submitted to have Ebisu train Naruto?" The Copy Ninja stood at a loss.

The Densetsu no Nin pursed his lips. "He did not revoke it, but he superseded and nullified your order in favor of his own. He must have felt that Ebisu would have dragged out and hindered Naruto's progress, instead of loading him up on jutsu after jutsu."

"…I wanted Naruto to slow down on the amount of techniques he's learning. I believe in his strength, but I feel that…he's going down…his path…"

"From what I've seen of the kid," Jiraiya remarked, allaying the younger ninja's deep-seated worries, "he's nothing like Itachi. In fact, Naruto's got a personality, and a bright one, at that. Sure, he mopes around a bit when things don't go his way, but he smiles and keeps getting back up, just like his mother…"

The slip of the tongue from the wandering hermit made the younger of the two thickly swallow. It was a tender subject between all who knew her. "…Any luck on finding her?"

Jiraiya shook his head. "At the time of the sealing, only Minato's body was pressed over Naruto's with a gaping hole torn into his back. Kushina wasn't around, oddly enough. Since then, the trail went cold—no footprints, no signs of struggle…nothing. Almost like she just…vanished without a trace…"

"…Do you think she was kidnapped by someone?" He had to ask it, just to recognize the giant elephant in their conversation.

"There was nothing to confirm that allegation, Kakashi. You and I both knew that," the Gama-sennin declared with a determined look. "I know she's out there…somewhere. She would never do such a classless act as to abandon a child when he needed her most." She had to have a very good reason why she left her son to fend for himself. What if there was someone hanging something over the young woman's head at the time? What if she had been lied to by those close to her? What if this was all just a big misunderstanding? What if she did…die? Or worse…what if Konoha was to blame for her sudden disappearance?

'No…In her own words, she "wouldn't want to go out like a chump" and "go down fighting like a warrior." If anything, she would put her life on the line and journey to hell and back for those she cared about…'

Kakashi brought him back to reality. "I thought that…jinchuuriki die when their tailed-beast was forcefully extracted…" He was not fully sure, until someone proved correct that hanging thought.

"In most cases, yes," Jiraiya conceded, crossing his arms over his broad chest, "but you're missing the point that Kushina was a fighter. She had a never-say-die attitude and put her heart and soul in what she did. That night was surrounded with a ton of controversy; however, I still have my ears to the ground for any developments in that drawn-out case." The trail had not grown cold. In fact, things began to heat up. Kushina was speculated to harbor the Kyuubi before Naruto, but no one was any the wiser. It might have rung true that demon containers passed on when a bijuu was pulled from them, but there were very few exceptions to that claim where some had enough chakra to offset the considerable loss.

Either way, he had not been in attendance of the sealing, other than investigating the area of hearsay. Now that he thought more on it, very few knew about it, so why did it get leaked out to the public, of all things, in the first place?

He had to track down the mole, unless said saboteur already fled from Konoha, had already died or had already been killed in combat.

"At any rate, I feel that we're getting sidetracked, and that wasn't what I had in mind to discuss," the Toad Hermit mumbled, regressing to his original agenda. "I was given reluctant permission to take in the kid once his ANBU agent's two weeks expire." He turned to face up at the sliver of light produced by the moon. Konohagakure felt a little too tranquil now; like the calm before the storm. "For now, Kakashi, once he's released from the hospital, you focus on training Sasuke. He's got quite the headline match for the final rounds, I bet. You better keep a close eye on him, too."

'Should I mention to him that I showed the Rasengan to Naruto?' the hardboiled veteran asked himself, before dismissing it, all together. 'Nah…I'll let Jiraiya-sama be surprised, and I'll be dying to hear about his reaction…'

The gravity-defying hair swayed when Kakashi nodded rather tersely. "Given what happened in the Forest of Death, and my own run-in with the snake, I already know what's in store."

"So I've heard," the Toad Hermit gruffly remarked. "I don't think your kids understand that nicking Orochimaru not only was a fluke, but it will only serve to…intrigue him even more. Who knows what he plans to do, now that he has more…talent to pick like fresh flowers in a meadow."

"Eloquently put, Jiraiya-sama."

The Sage from Myoubokuzan began to walk away. "I'll be watching closely, in case things get a bit hairy…"

"Like your wild mane, sir?" Kakashi asked with a bit of humor lining his voice.

Jiraiya paused in his stride and harrumphed, turning at a profile to the younger ninja. "Hah! That's a very fitting analogy, Kakashi." Right in front of Kakashi's eyes, the taller shinobi disappeared without a trace, leaving behind a flurry of green leaves in his wake as he used a seal-less Shunshin.

Before soaring off to his apartment for the night, his mouth formed into an O-shape, signifying that he overlooked one small detail…

'Oh, damn…after all this time, I forgot to assign someone for Sakura!' He had gotten too caught up in his boys to the point that he oversaw the budding genjutsu-user on the team, who was also in the final rounds. 'I gotta rectify that in a hurry!'

XXXXXXXXXX

Aforementioned cerise-locked kunoichi stared up at the ceiling of her bedroom as she crashed for the night. Her jade eyes, now lacking focus due to impending slumber, slowly turned from the plain-looking ceiling, to her bandaged wrists, which held storage seals engraved onto her skin for her special shuriken and boomerangs, to gaze at the night sky.

'Everything seems…so peaceful…but something feels so…off…'

She then turned her head to see her alarm clock, which read a quarter to ten. Why did she have the nagging feeling that something felt wrong?

Earlier today, she managed to track down Haku-neesan, who had stopped by the merchants' district en route to Sakura's house. After making light talk for a few minutes, the younger of the two kunoichi asked the other for training. The ice-producing girl mulled over it for nary a second before she agreed to help out. Granted, with two different bloodlines shared between them, in what would Haku have her train? She would find out tomorrow.

'Hey, Uchi-chan, are you still with me?' Sure enough, the now-hazy, chalky outline appeared within her mindscape.

"Yeah, I'm here," her inner ego grumbled. "What's bugging you, Pinky? And what's with this new nickname you're giving me?"

'The energy in the air…it's a little too quiet…' she inwardly intoned, voicing her concerns and ignoring her inner ego's query.

"…" Her Uchi naru Ishi pursed her lips. "I think Snake-Face is about to pull off something big."

'So…'

"So…what?"

'What are we going to do about it, then?'

Her inner ego sighed. "…We caught a lucky break when we did. He's still crippled, but I don't think we left enough lasting damage on him to actually make a difference in his plans. If anything, we just got targets painted across our backs…"

Sakura was surprised at how morose her inner self sounded. 'Well, maybe Naruto and Sasuke-kun did enough to make up for that,' she optimistically supplied.

"I don't know about that, Pinky," the Inner Sakura flatly stated. "We also forgot, in the rush of adrenaline, that reptiles do have some regenerative properties. By the time the final rounds are here, he may have already grown out that arm of his…just like how a lizard restores its tail after it gets lopped off."

The genuine cherry blossom shuddered at that thought as she curled up her legs and rested her head on them. Her pajama pants surely felt soft and comfortable. 'You still didn't answer my question. Are we just going to sit around and wait for him to make his move, or are we going to bust our asses with training until we can't stand, anymore?'

Where did that fire go from her inner persona? "Heh…I suppose I have been rubbing off on you, after all, Pinky…"

'I try to learn from the best!' Sakura mentally chirped.

"Well, the only thing we can do right now is to avoid Snake-Face if and when he shows up. He may not be interested in going after Sasuke, but after you or Naruto-senpai. He may be here for other purposes, but we don't know that."

'So, it's all guesswork from here on out, huh?'

"We play it by ear." A vagrant thought passed through Sakura's Inner Will. "Do you remember your empty threat you gave to the boys when they were at each other's throats in the forest?" The Shadow Blossom bobbed her head with a muffled, "Yes." "How about we make that a reality?"

Her head popped up from her resting place. 'You mean…?'

"Yes…we're gonna start summoning within the month."

The cackling laughter in her head did not soothe the green-eyed bookworm in the least. 'Is it going to be painful?'

Inner Sakura only laughed louder.

XXXXXXXXXX

The next day, Naruto tried—many times over—to get down his training exercise, but, regrettably, the boy still fell in with little progress.

He sat by the pond under the waterfall, meditating on his errors. He unconsciously scratched his head while his canine started to tread water like a professional.

'Focus…harmony…oneness with myself…'

Exhaling a long huff, the bewhiskered blond slowly stood up. He summoned two shadow clones to stand as eyewitnesses to see what he had done wrong. "You," he started to order the one who stood to his right, "move over some more." He then scanned the other way to meet the eyes of his other copy. "Same goes for you."

"How far?" they both asked, blinking at the same time.

'Whoa…creepy…' "Three meters each should do. I need some different points of view, and I want you to supply me some feedback when you dispel. Got it?"

"Yes, boss!" both of the doppelgangers beamed, saluting just for the hell of it.

"Let's get to work, boys!"

Getting into position, the real Naruto walked up to the lake courteously generated by his Mokuton-using instructor, eyes alight with focused willpower. He strongly pushed out every thought from his head—from cleaning up his apartment, to Hyuuga Neji, to figure out that damn ball of energy that Kakashi-sensei showed to him, to being acknowledged by the villagers who doubted in the Yondaime's sealing capabilities…

None of those mattered for right now.

With a clear head, he bucked back and tumbled forward, catching his weight as he nimbly stood erect, but upside-down in a handstand, for the countless times before, with a quartet of leaves stuck to his soles.

'Maybe I should think about doing acrobatics if this whole ninja thing doesn't pan out…' He paused and then instantly shook his head, forcing out that aimless thought. He had to train to get stronger, since he had a very good reason.

Ramen waited for him at the end of the bet.

Instead of trying to do both methods at the same time, Naruto decided now to break down and try to free-float the leaves before reaching the lake.

'Concentrate…'

Before he knew it, the leaves began to circulate around his feet with more ease than before.

'Think of a chakra ring right above my feet…'

Feeling that he might have gotten the hang of it, Naruto calmly took some steps on the quieter side of the lake, away from the waterfall, which now sounded like background noise that barely registered into his ears. The wind caressed his frame as he took a few more confident strides across the water's surface.

'I'm doing it! Yes!' He wanted to laugh, but that could make him lose focus and fall in…again.

The northern winds due to a passing high-pressure system picked up, cooling the mild day in Konohagakure. However, that was not the reason Naruto toppled over and fell in with a loud splash.

Within that gentle breeze, he thought he heard something that sounded like somebody calling his name.

"Naruto…"

'Please, tell me you heard that, fox,' the boy mentally claimed as he spat water out of his mouth, keeping his head afloat.

"Heard what?"

'Bah…Never mind, then…'

The boy turned to see his temporary sensei eyeing him with great intent before his frame relaxed, letting loose a breath he held in his lungs. Much to Yamato's delight, the bet was still ongoing.

'Heh…not for much longer, anyway…'

Naruto unleashed a devilish smile and pointed at him. "I'm close to figuring it out, Yamato-sensei, so you better pay up when I nail it, dattebayo!"

On the other hand, that light voice that called out to him made him wonder as he stared in the direction of the sound…

To whom did it belong?

XXXXXXXXXX

Looking around Training Area Three, now vacant after a chuunin had finished using it for a bit of training, Sakura felt alone.

'Haku-neesan told us to be here at noon, and she's fifteen minutes late!'

"No," the newly-dubbed Uchi-chan piped up. "She's here, and it's something you didn't pick up right away…"

'Wait…'

Before she had a chance to grill her Inner Will, Haku popped up right by her with a delicate frown marring her features. "You need more practice with your environmental awareness, Sakura-san," the older girl chastised, causing the pink-haired bookworm to squeak in shock and slightly lower her head in disappointment. "That's number one in your list of priorities."

"I'm…I'm sorry…" Sakura turned away from the criticizing look sent her way.

"If I were an enemy, you would have easily been taken out by now."

That definitive statement caused the green-eyed bookworm to shrink in a little due to her rebuke. "I'll…keep that in mind…"

An odd look passed over Haku's face before she cleared her throat. "At any rate, let's work on refining your taijutsu a bit. From what I saw during the preliminary matches, it can use some…adjustments…for lack of a better word."

"You mean…fine-tuning?" Sakura asked. "Why's that?" Her hand-to-hand combat seemed okay, she supposed.

For one of the brightest of the batch of genin, Sakura surely missed the obvious point. "At some point on the battlefield, you have to have a fallback strategy in case your genjutsu…"

"And youjutsu!" the rosette-haired wiz-kid clarified.

"…or youjutsu," Haku added to satiate her, "are rendered ineffective against a stronger enemy. In the event that genjutsu or ninjutsu don't affect an enemy, you still have taijutsu as a last resort to cripple your foe. In other words, Sakura-san, we're going to tweak your skill set by not wasting any movements."

"So, we're going to work mostly on efficiency in combat-type scenarios?" the younger kunoichi inquired.

"That's the gist of it!" the brunette exclaimed with a disarming smile. Then, on a whim, that smile turned maliciously deadly. "Now, think fast!"

'What the—!"

Before Sakura could even think, she hastily dodged a swipe from a kunai in Haku's hand.

'This chick is bonkers!' She performed a quick back-handspring to avoid another calculated twist of the ninja spade.

"I'll say…"

'I guess training has already started, Uchi-chan.'

Inner Sakura sighed. She felt resigned to just give in and accept her new moniker.

XXXXXXXXXX

The head receptionist of the hospital looked up from her desk to see the person in front of her. She hid her blush pretty well. "May I help you, Hatake-san?"

The Copy Ninja brushed through his hair as he leaned in close, elbow bent on the table. "How's Sasuke's condition?"

She did her best to not faint from his smooth aura. "He's stable, still. You have clearance to see him, since you admitted him."

Turning on the charm of his illusion, Kakashi winked. "Thank you, miss." He walked into the corridor leading to the stairs when the sound of a chair rolling and a body thumping on the floor rang through his ears. A grin found its way through his half-mask. "Heh…I still got it…"

His debonair posture slumped a bit when his mood shifted into something serious. Ascending to the fifth story, the ashen-haired ninja started to jot down a little note for his currently incapacitated student. How he managed to keep his eye on the note and not trip up the stairs was beyond anyone's guess.

At any rate, Kakashi made it to Sasuke's room and checked around for any signs of foul play. He let loose a breath that he unconsciously held. 'Good…that Kabuto character hasn't come back…'

He slowly ambled to the bedside table and left his folded note for his charge when he came to.

Before the Copy Ninja left, he hummed in thought. 'Do I have enough stamina to keep a shadow clone roaming around the village for the entire month?'

It was a risk worth taking, after all. He needed to keep his ears and eyes alert, in case things took a turn for the worse within Konoha. Furthermore, in case his other students needed to seek him out, then he could leave just the one in place, but that meant that his doppelganger had to avoid any type of confrontation, lest it would drain his energy tank by a significant margin. 'Granted, when I summon a Kage Bunshin, it has its own reserves to draw on, but that also means that our chakra is shared to a certain extent.'

He weighed his options. Should he summon a regular shadow clone, or one of a special variety?

'Decisions, decisions…'

XXXXXXXXXX

The substitute instructor looked on, with rapt interest, as Naruto meditated before he tried the exercise for the two-hundredth time…

Yes, he did count how many times the bewhiskered ninja fell into the pond with a hidden glee.

'Well, I guess ramen is on me, then,' Yamato despondently reflected as he saw the blond boy confidently stride across the lake on his hands, two leaves circulating around each sole of his feet like a mesmeric circle of resonance…in the span of three days.

He supposed his carrot-on-a-string approach worked a little too well.

"Good job, Naruto-kun," the Mokuton-infused ninja piped up. "I think that's it for today."

"What?" the blond asked in confusion. Naruto's face looked pretty funny as he still stood upside-down. "It's only three in the afternoon!"

"Sometimes, you have to rest the body as part of your training," he sagaciously supplied as he stood up from his vantage point. "There's no need to burn out so early."

The blue-eyed genin sadly emitted a sigh. "Fine, Sensei…"

"We still have another two hours before we have to give up the training area, so feel free to practice your ninjutsu or taijutsu. Just…be careful." To continue overseeing his training, he summoned a clone from the very tree under which he rested. "This clone will be watching over you in the meantime."

Naruto righted himself from a cartwheel onto dry land. "Wait! Where're you going, Yamato-sensei?"

"If I told you…" His face darkened again, showing off his 'scary face' once more. "…I'd have to kill you…"

Naruto trembled in fright. "O-Okay…"

The older shinobi walked away, leaving behind a wary Naruto. "He scares me, still…"

"Creepy…" Doshaburi intoned under his breath.

"All right," the blond ninja said, shaking it off and pounded his right fist into his open left, "time to knock out that project that Kakashi-sensei had for me!" Whipping out the piece of parchment, he examined its contents. Much to his annoyance, he skimmed through the mechanics, wondering how come part of it seemed like it had been purposely erased.

"It's a low-grade genjutsu, boy. The one-eyed copycat may not want you to know for some reason."

'Maybe it's because not many know about it…well, those who haven't fought in the past war. I don't know,' Naruto mentally answered, trying to play as the devil's advocate. 'Should I try to dispel it?'

"It all depends on your curiosity, boy," the Kyuubi intoned, voice echoing in Naruto's head.

The boy chewed on that thought for a small amount of time before coming to his decision. 'Meh, it's just a jutsu. It's not like I'll be screaming my head off when I whip it out on somebody…'

"That's what he said…" the carmine phantom wickedly remarked prior to chuckling. The blond boy's face contorted into one of disgust at the joke into which he unknowingly ventured.

'Oh, grow up, fox!' Naruto shouted, palming his face in his hand. 'Is that all you think about?'

"I want action! I crave for carnality and blood!"

'Yeah…you're not getting either any time soon, so knock it off, Fuzz-Butt!' Naruto then mulled over the first step, ignoring the crimson demon's pouts. 'So, I'm going to need a few water balloons, huh?'

XXXXXXXXXX

A cool breeze wafted through the village as Sarutobi Asuma—now back in his jounin attire—took a stroll during the evening, cigarette lit like a small beacon of light and hands shoved down his pockets. Apparently, Kurenai did not want him to smoke in her company, so he respected her wishes. He glanced up at the full moon on the fourth night of the reprieve—the eleventh of July.

'Twenty-six more days, huh?'

So far, Shikamaru had been going through the motions of training, but that mostly comprised of shougi matches with the bearded jounin…and he constantly lost, like always.

The poor boy seemed to never get motivated, at all. "I'll get to training eventually, even though it's so troublesome," he heard the boy say over the span of a few days.

The lackadaisical deer-rancher had what it took to become a chuunin; the problem lay in the fact that his lack of motivation hindered him from truly shining. His intelligence quotient at two hundred proved for a remarkable asset to Konoha's roster…

…if only he could just light a fire under that kid's ass…

As he rounded the corner, he thought he heard sounds of commotion from a high-topped building. He then assumed he heard the sound of…shifting sand followed by a muffled scream. After that, things grew still.

'Could I be imagining things?' Shaking off that errant musing, the chain-smoking ninja easily shoved that off as impossible. 'Not now. Gotta keep a clear head…'

The Hokage's son jumped between the walls of two buildings before standing on a low-lying roof, a few meters from where he heard the sounds. 'Wait…who's over there?' The moonlight, albeit bright and luminescent, could not illuminate and expose the two individuals cajoling under it. 'They both seem guarded…'

Suddenly, one of the two made his move and intercepted another figure that was crouched around a corner, his hitai-ate glistening in the available light. Asuma's sharp eyes clearly saw the chiseled leaf insignia on both forehead protectors. 'What in the burning hells is going on up there?'

As the onlooker dashed up the rooftops to investigate further, the third entity moved to handle the interloper, and that was when he felt the shift in chakra. Asuma's eyes almost bugged out. 'A wind-user? That has to be a high-level Suna shinobi!' Adrenaline started to gush through the chain-smoking ninja's system as he sped up, fight or flight response on a hair trigger waiting to be pulled.

The figure—the intruder of the supposed meeting—got cornered by the other two ninja, and Asuma immediately recognized his fellow comrade. 'Hayate! Damn it, man! What have you gotten yourself into?'

It felt like an eternity to the grisly Sarutobi. Time seemingly stood still when a blade of wind-natured chakra cleaved right through the sword-wielding shinobi's flak jacket like severing a thread.

Acting on impulse, Asuma procured his patented trench knives and chucked one at the faceless enemies, causing them to jump away and peter out in smoke.

The only conscious man on top of the building sucked his teeth in distaste. 'Too late…' he grimly reflected as he arrived on the scene. Hayate's eyes were fluttering due to shock, and blood freely flowed from his gaping chest wound. A surge of urgency filtered through Asuma's veins as his comrade's life hung in the balance, and he had to act fast to save him.

This was Hayate's small window of opportunity to pull through…or journey on into another world…

XXXXXXXXXX

Small, silver needles flew in a carefully packed salvo toward their target.

Said target, whose eyes remained closed, focused on keeping cool. Then, suddenly, green eyes burned in resolve when they opened up, clashing with the bright azure of the daytime sky.

Sakura hastily pulled out a kunai from her utility pouch and twirled the ninja spade in her hands, ready to meet the senbon barrage from Haku.

The first shiny needle came to puncture her left shoulder, but the green-eyed kunoichi nudged her tool to redirect its motion away from her. The subsequent senbon flew to disable a nerve in her knee had she not bent low to disrupt the trajectory. Quickly recovering, Sakura front-flipped over three more that had originally aimed at her torso from her standing position. Another flick of the wrist sent a senbon back to its caster, which made her catch the silver needle between her index and middle fingers.

A bit winded, but still on her feet, the wiz-kid of Team Seven looked at her personal trainer with a strong look, unreservedly asking for criticism. How did she fare in the five-second interval?

"Impressive…" the ice-mistress intoned with a bob of her head. "Your reaction time is quickly gaining ground, Sakura-san."

Not lowering her guard, the smaller kunoichi smirked. "Thanks for the appraisal, Haku-neesan."

The older female ninja relaxed her posture. "It's near lunchtime. Care to get something to eat?"

Sakura appreciated the offer, but she shook her head. "Sorry, but I have some personal training that I have to do. Thanks, but…you go on ahead."

Haku appeared sad, as noted by the downcast look in her brown irises. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, really," the green-eyed bookworm answered as honestly and as truthfully as she could. "Enjoy yourself!"

With that send-off, the Hyouton-heiress nodded and walked off to the nearest eatery, battle kimono fluttering in the light breeze. "I shall see you later, Sakura-san," she remarked with a wave of her hand.

Once her personal trainer was out of sight, she crossed her arms over her face, forced open the two chakra gates within her mind and drew out her Inner Will. She had to kneel down in a crouch, due to the pounding headache produced from drawing out her more sadistic ego.

"Ugh…" she groaned, holding her head in her hands. "I need to get used to this…"

Inner Sakura gently tapped her foot on the ground. "Damn right you do!" she boomed. "No one's going to wait around while you recover, but that will be for another time, I suppose."

"All right," the true cherry blossom—the rosette—grated out, shaking her head of the slight bout of vertigo. "I called you out here so we can get started with this summoning technique. First of all, how is it going to work, since most require a binding signature in blood?" She noticed her other self's hands outstretched and reaching out to her. "Huh?"

"Hold hands with me, Pinky," the brunette clarified, pushing up her hands with a serious look on her face.

Feeling a tad uneasy, Sakura placed her palms over her other half's set before pressing down on them. "Okay…What now, Uchi-chan?"

Green eyes instantly turned away as she sucked her teeth. "Why do you keep calling me that?" she mumbled under her breath, before facing her outer self. "We're going to travel to the World of Shadows…Soto-chan…"

Stunned jade met serene green. "Eh? What do you mean?"

"Just…relax, and enjoy the ride…" The dark-haired Sakura gave the pink-haired girl a placid smile as she intertwined her digits with her. A shadowy haze enveloped the two as the genuine cherry blossom's eyes darted about.

"Relax, Pinky. It's only a Kage Hakobi that you also know."

Darkness enshrouded her vision as she felt herself in a controlled freefall with her inner persona.

Suddenly, the wiz-kid from Team Seven felt the bottom give way, causing the two to descend at a faster velocity. As they fell through what resembled dark clouds, the authentic cherry blossom scanned her surroundings.

She felt like she had plummeted into a photo-negative version of her own world. She managed to pick out the notable landmarks that paralleled her home village, but one thing stood out to her the most…

Everything was upside-down.

"Welcome to the Shadow Realm, Soto-chan," she heard her Inner Will comment, breaking her focus from the background.

"Everything seems so…topsy-turvy," Sakura deadpanned.

"That's because the normal laws of physics don't apply here," Uchi-chan clarified. "Why do you think we're floating on a white disk made up of our own shadows? Hell yeah!"

"…Good point," the outer Sakura conceded while looking around again. "So, is this a parallel world akin to up above…or in another plane…or wherever?"

"In a manner of speaking, yes, you're right on the money, Pinky." Her more adventurous side controlled their shadow to float over the inverse village. "While we're in this place, you will use your chakra to draw out the Kage Gen'ei that will be your personal summon and companion. You get a few chances, so if you don't manage to draw out and materialize a familiar, then don't worry too much, okay?"

Sakura wondered why her Inner Will was being…kind, all of a sudden. Was this a way to lull the poor girl into a false sense of security? "You're not playing a trick on me, are you, Uchi-chan?"

"Nope," she replied. "I'm just letting you settle until the pain-filled episode you will have later ruins your experience…" She began to chuckle under her breath.

The cerise-locked kunoichi hummed while contemplating. "You take pleasure in pain. Are you a masochist?"

"That means you are, too, Soto-chan, but you tend to hide that fact," the inner ego rebutted, eyes lidded with a smug smirk that easily reminded her of her crush.

The real-deal bookworm blinked. She never really thought of that before. Why else would she throw herself at the boy who did not really want her? Or was it a sort of defense mechanism; a type of wall that needed tearing down? Did Sasuke-kun push away everyone else due to the fear that he might lose someone else if he got too close to him or her? His family was brutally taken from him in one night, which impacted him from then on. It was left to reason at how closed off he became, shutting and locking the door to his heart, denying anyone entry.

On that same note, was that another way of coping with her pain, by latching onto the object of her desire and misery, in order to help 'heal the loner's heart,' as it stood?

This almost felt like she was venturing into the deep recesses of her soul to discover herself…

"I see the gears are finally turning in your head, Pinky," the brunette noted when she saw her outer self's jade orbs glaze over in retrospection. "You're catching on quick. This journey of self-discovery is one that you alone must do to find your spirit guide."

"Well, aren't you my tour guide for this place, anyway?"

"That's not the point," she deflected. "This Shadow Phantom will grow with you as your ass gets stronger. Think of it like a symbolic relationship between you and your familiar."

Green eyes were back in focus. "Un," Sakura agreed with a slight nod. "So…should I meditate and channel my chakra to act as a magnet to my summoned creature?"

"Don't ask me! Just try it out and do it! Shannaro!"

"Can I let go of your hand now? Or will the link with the Shadow World cease?"

"I think you're so far into deep sleep that it doesn't really matter…"

"What?" Surprise lined the rosette's voice. "I'm asleep in the real world?"

"Oh, did I forget to mention that?" The index finger on Inner Sakura's right hand made its way to the bottom lip as she pondered over that tidbit of news that she did not relay.

"You could've warned me, Uchi-chan!" the green-eyed bookworm bellowed.

The inner ego just examined her nails and picked between them, whistling for good measure.

The genuine-article Haruno just grumbled. "Fine, then…" She sat down on what she felt was a type of ground, but it was just the ivory circle upon which she stood that provided a base for her body. "…Let's do this!"

She sat still and closed her eyes, easily slipping into meditation. Whether it was because she fell asleep that made it easier served as a moot point. Her chakra willingly pushed and pulled away from her as it circulated about her body, trying its best to conscientiously seek out its polar frequency.

After several minutes—or hours, for she could not tell—of reaching out for her summon, a dark, oozy mass fell 'up' from the photo-negative town and crawled in curiosity toward the new source of energy emitted in the World of Shadows. The obscure blob felt around the drifting chakra from this pink-haired girl and touched it, establishing a link right away.

The strange material started to bubble and froth, forming the shape and likeness of an equine effigy with wispy plumes of smoke drifting from its bulky frame of sixteen hands long—or sixty-four inches from head to hind hoof.

Feeling a new presence around her, Sakura slowly opened her eyes to stare face-to-face with an inquisitive look from a mare conjured from the essence of the world from where it came, its snout flaring in breaths.

"So, you're my companion?" the pink-haired genin asked with blatant interest.

As a response, the mare's front hoof scuffed the area once…then twice…and then it bolted upward.

"Eh? What the hell? Come back!" she roared to it, but it spiraled up and out of sight. She felt a hand on her shoulder, forcing her to turn her head to the side to see identical green eyes.

"This is where your challenge begins, Soto-chan," Inner Sakura explained with haste. "You have to subdue your familiar to make it yours to summon at your beck and call. Now, go! Time's of the essence!"

"Where will it run off to?" she asked as the duo started to float up and into the nebulous clouds of the world's atmosphere.

"It's probably found a way out from your unconscious body and out into the material world, by using you as a conduit for escape," Uchi-chan explicated.

Sakura looked up at the white light leading out of the world and back into her own mind and body. 'How long do I have?' she asked herself, leaving her inner ego to answer that hanging question.

"For some of the Haruno before you, it took days, but I have faith in you, Pinky! Good luck!"

Green eyes stared unflinchingly at the other set, before they burned anew with strength of mind. "I'll do my best!"

XXXXXXXXXX

Kakashi, now on the outskirts of Konoha and near a plateau, looked up at the position of the sun as he waited for his target student to arrive.

'He should be here by now…'

He had given the green light to Pakkun to wait for Sasuke outside the hospital, when he got released for good health, and asked that he follow him to where the ashen-haired assassin was located.

Sure enough, the Copy Ninja glanced down at smaller digits firmly gripping the edge before the arm and body came up with it. "Ah, you made it, Sasuke."

The onyx-eyed Uchiha gave off his confident smirk as he righted himself. "I wouldn't miss training for the world."

"Well," Kakashi began, "you already missed out on a few days, so in a way, we're kind of behind."

"What about the dobe and Sakura?"

"…" He scratched the cloth lining the bottom of his face. "I left Naruto in capable hands."

Sasuke snorted. "You still haven't answered with where you placed Sakura."

The Copy Ninja cleared his throat. "Let's…just focus on training, shall we?"

"You forgot about her, didn't you?" the Uchiha scion remarked with a sideways grin.

"Maybe I have, but that's not the point," the jounin instructor helplessly amended, nipping the debate in the bud. "First of all, I need to get a read on your chakra nature, just to make sure I maximize your training routine."

"Hn…" the younger one grunted with his hand out like he wanted money, eyes closed. "Where's the chakra paper?" Kakashi fumbled through his flak jacket to procure the leaf of paper for his charge. With relative ease, the rookie of the year channeled his essence through the piece and was met with astonishment…

The sheet creased in on itself, slightly burning at the edges.

"Hm…" A dark eye appeared thoughtful as he hummed. "Maybe that was why it took you longer to master your fire, Sasuke. You don't even have the base nature to properly match it."

Sasuke assumed a sour look. "Then what was with that one-on-one training before the Chuunin Trials?"

"I wanted to personally gauge you on your skill," the older ninja answered, "to see where you fell."

Black eyes looked baffled, despite his talents. "Say what, Kakashi?"

"Do you remember how easy it was for you to learn the Shinkei Douyou no Jutsu?" the masked man recalled, reflecting on the Nerve Disturbance Technique that he commanded Sasuke to use on him after he completed it. He felt numb in his arm for a minute before he evened out the foreign electricity with his own nature, but what stunned him more was how fast the boy picked up on it. He almost missed Sasuke's hesitant nod. "Well, there you go!"

The lone wolf of Team Seven looked at his teacher like he did not make much sense. "So, what do we do now?"

The Copy Ninja slipped into combat training mode, goofiness tossed to the wind. "You're going to be in the fight of your life, Sasuke. On that, there is no doubt."

Sasuke merely scoffed at that. "Like I'll lose to some foreign shinobi…" He could not die now, for he had a goal to achieve…

He paused. Was he really certain with obtaining revenge…or settling a score to right a wrong out of the debt owed to his family for closure?

Before he delved deeper into that vein of thought, Kakashi brought him back to real time. He clucked his teeth like he was about to chide a child who knew better than to act prideful. "I don't think you really understand the gravity of the situation that Lady Luck has placed on your shoulders. Gaara…" he stopped himself before rephrasing it better, "…is a weapon, created by Sunagakure's conditioning, and is your opponent next month."

"What's his power?"

"He wields sand that acts of its own accord. It reacts independently of Gaara's will, unless he channels it to crush and overwhelm a foe. It protects him, and his match with Zaku showed that he has an armor of sand tightly packed around his body, to prevent him from sustaining further, physical damage. It's like the ultimate defense; the unbreakable shield."

"How about I get trained to become the spear that can penetrate that so-called unbreakable shield?" the Sharingan-heir simply reasoned, shrugging his shoulders. He remembered a paradox involving the impenetrable shield and the indestructible spear that could cut through everything, but it was all a blur to him.

The taller shinobi scratched his scalp. "That was the plan, initially."

"Initially, you say? Did it change a bit?"

Kakashi shook his head in the negative. "Not at all…" He then cleared his throat. "Well, we have a lot of ground to cover. Do you think you're up to the challenge? There's no backing down, now."

The genin-in-training cracked his knuckles while donning an impassive face. "I have an objective to meet, so count me in. Otherwise, why would I be here? It's not like I'm going rock-climbing or anything…"

'Heh…You have no idea, Sasuke…Welcome to hell…' The infamous eye-smile broke out in full force across the exposed skin of his visage. "Well, then, let's start!"

XXXXXXXXXX

The Mokuton-wielding ninja distractedly stroked his chin as he considered the awaiting blond right before his eyes. He already got down the chakra exercise in a few days, so what kind of busy work should he give to the boy before the next week's chakra control technique?

Taking into account his Kage Bunshin, Yamato came to a solution. 'I got it…'

"Naruto-kun, have you ever considered learning more cloning techniques?" he asked the blue-eyed genin, who had a strange look crossing his face before pursing his lips in thought.

"Actually, it hadn't crossed my mind, Sensei," Naruto responded. For the moment, he just wanted to restore the jutsu that he could not access. "Why do you ask?"

The older shinobi scratched his cheek and smiled. "I think it'd be a fantastic idea to diversify your cloning arsenal."

The bewhiskered blond blinked twice. "Diversify…my clones?"

"Well, coming from a prankster's mentality, I thought you would entertain the idea to throw your opponent even further off-guard by mixing in various elemental replicas. With Mizu Bunshin, when they get disrupted, they turn into water…"

Naruto hummed before intervening. "That means the water that comes from those clones can fuel my Suiton jutsu…that is, if my opponent isn't geared toward the water element, which could, in turn, backfire on me."

Surprised that the kid caught on, Yamato nodded. "Correct. What about adding the Earth Release into the matrices of your Kage Bunshin?"

Despite his initial misnaming of the jutsu, the mention of the Earth Release Shadow Clone provoked a dark look to creep over Naruto's facial features. "Now that I think about it…that was the same jutsu that Orochimaru used on me before almost knocking me out of the forest…"

"Naruto," the temporary instructor piped up, getting the pointy-eared genin's attention, "I know you're upset about your predicament, but try not to dwell on what happened. I don't fault you for detesting how powerless you were against Orochimaru, but that just means you have to get stronger if you want to protect the things you value the most."

"Do you hate him for what he's done to you?" he hotly asked.

The genetically-altered ninja glanced off into the distance with a weary sigh. "…I consider it a blessing in disguise that I managed to survive, when the other fifty-nine children didn't."

That was rather humbling for the enigmatic blond, who looked down and chewed over what his part-time sensei just revealed to him.

"As I was saying," the elder shinobi began to speak after a small, pregnant pause, "when those types of clones get disrupted and revert back to their base element, you can then use the leftover material as a foundation for other techniques. You can turn those setbacks into hidden surprises. Furthermore, you can perform a Kawarimi among your clones to randomize the type of clone your enemy will strike."

"So…I should sneak in attacks while I keep my enemy occupied with my clones to keep their attention away from what I want to do…right?"

"You're smarter than you let on, Naruto-kun," Yamato mentioned with open amazement, "but, in any case, yes. Deception is the key to victory, even though some cry foul that it's nothing but a dirty trick wrapped up in a different package." He rolled his eyes. "If it helps win a decisive victory, then why make a fuss about it?"

Naruto sagely nodded. "You make a good point. Ninja are all about cheap tricks and underhanded plays to get the upper hand. That's what Saru-jijii implied to me: sometimes, cheaters swindle you if you're blind to the fact, and in other cases, cheaters can prosper if they don't get caught…"

"Like in the first phase of the exams?" the Mokuton-infused shinobi helpfully supplied.

"Well, yeah, but I didn't cheat, then."

"Hm…" Yamato shook his head. "Regressing to the matter at hand, do you care to learn the jutsu for water and earth clones or not?"

The blond tapped his chin in thought. "About integrating an element into a shadow clone…is it possible for it to be filled with water? I mean, more bang for your ryou, if you ask me."

"Huh…" Yamato forgot about that. "Impressive observation. Well, would you want to learn Suiton and Doton Kage Bunshin, then, instead?"

"Your sales pitch already reeled me in!" Naruto boomed with an explosive grin. "Let's get cracking, Yamato-sensei!"

Before they had a chance to start, however, a load of shouts and loud ruckus erupted from the merchants' quarter of the village.

'What in the world?' ran through both of their heads at the same time.

XXXXXXXXXX

Haruno Sakura was not having a good day, so far.

Gnawing her bottom lip in evident frustration, the rosette-haired kunoichi stalked high and low for that blasted horse! Unfortunately, she did not have much luck with subjugating the wild animal.

'By the gods, I hope my nose isn't broken!' She consciously rubbed the stinging sensation from the harrowing ordeal a few minutes prior…

As soon as she woke up in the world in which she was familiar, Sakura raced off, trying to get a feel for that shadowy chakra permeating the village.

"I gotta find that thing before it causes unwanted attention, damn it!" she shouted to no one in particular, legs brimming with adrenaline and chakra.

Inner Sakura was of no help; because she said nothing, save for a snicker or two. 'This is getting interesting…'

Eventually, the cerise-locked cherry blossom pinpointed the mare's location, thinking of an on-the-fly strategy to keep it in place.

Offhandedly, she recalled that horses liked crunchy things, so she quickly swung by the produce stand to buy a carrot from one of the kind merchants. He had very little teeth when he tried to smile, but that was beside the point.

'It's stopped near the bridge where we usually meet for team drills!' she mentally remarked as she felt the familiar's essence pause in one spot. Jade eyes frantically looked around as she scaled to the rooftops in search of the wayward mare. The wispy cloud of smoke drifting from its robust frame caused it to stick out like a sore thumb. 'There it is! Now, time to put my plan to action!'

With one of her kunai, Sakura gently poked a small hole through the newly bought vegetable and threaded ninja wire through it, tugging the knot tightly. Once finished, green eyes looked at where the female horse rested, eating grass near the river running through it. She slowed down her breathing and kept her presence as low-key as possible, in order to not make the Shadow Phantom flee. Sneaking around to reach a vantage point from the trees, the wiz-kid of Team Seven dangled the carrot from the string and dropped it onto the ground, making a soft sound that alerted the mare. Tilting its head in curiosity, the lithe equine carefully trotted up to the strange-looking root vegetable, before taking a few test nibbles on it.

'It's distracted!' Sakura triumphantly crowed before she tried to jump on the mare's back.

Sadly, for her, she yelled out, "Banzai!" as she rustled the foliage surrounding her on her swift descent down.

That simple action freaked out the mare before it took off.

No, scratch that. The animal bucked and bolted, leaving a trail of dust in its wake.

And…with nothing to land on, Sakura ate dirt when she crash-landed, folding up like a sheet of paper—heels well over her head. Hard.

"Ow…" her mumbled groan of agony reverberated through the ground.

Inner Sakura rolled to the side, bursting with jovial laughter.

The pink-haired girl shook off that one mistake that cost her valuable time.

'It's already more trouble than what it's worth…' She let loose a defeated sigh. The kunoichi-in-training suddenly sensed movement and the sound of swift galloping on the other side of the building, with the occasional shouts and curses thrown its way.

"Damned animal! Someone needs to tranquilize that thing!"

"Eek!"

"Whoa!"

Taking that as a very strong hint that the midnight-toned mare was in the vicinity, she jumped on, yet again, another roof and started to run hot after its trail.

XXXXXXXXXX

Deep into the heart of the merchants' quarter, a gray-haired merchant with a green wrap covering his head pushed his cart full of delectable, verdant heads of cabbage. His olive-toned eyes shone with wonder as he ventured to this place—Konoha—to sell his lovely produce. He took his time to sniff the crisp air, drinking in the splendid atmosphere.

He aimlessly walked around, ashen beard swaying to and fro as he exchanged his cabbages with the townsfolk.

Just as he was about to finish a transaction, his ears perked up and caused him to look to his left. The shouts of warning flew all around like an angry swarm of insects.

"Watch out!"

"Wild animal on the loose!"

"Get out of the way!"

With a large cloud of dust billowing out behind it, a frantic horse, who had a hide as dark as the twilight hour, whinnied and charged right at him in a full gallop.

His jade eyes grew to the size of saucers. 'Not again!'

The man dressed in the loose-fitting yellow long shirt, olive pants and green vest dashed out of the main street when the horse barreled through his cart with no sign of stopping and obliterated his one-man carriage, heads of his precious vegetables blown every which way, along with the wood that made up said cart.

"No!" the middle-aged man yelled to the heavens, shock and horror lining his impotent cries. "My cabbages!"

To add insult to injury, one of his cabbage heads landed right near him, only for a pink-haired girl to drop from out of the sky and crush it under her heel as she dashed off after the equine in hot pursuit.

"Get back here, you damn horse!" he heard the child bellow, presence fading down the dusty avenue.

The poor cabbage merchant never caught a break; misfortune followed him like it was his own shadow. The man held his head in his hands in defeat and bemoaned his plight in unbecoming silence.

Kakashi—or rather, a specially designed clone of the infamous Copy Ninja—walked up to the vegetable mogul with pity in his exposed eye. "And to think that I was in the mood for some cabbage today…" Shrugging its shoulders, the doppelganger began to walk off to parts unknown, orange book in hand. "Oh, well…I'll try some dango, instead." The replica whistled to himself as he trod at a sedated pace.

XXXXXXXXXX

Blazing hues of orange intermingled with blue in the evening sky as Sakura, who was almost out of breath and legs cramping from running all over Konoha, finally found the mare resting near a stream to take a few delicate sips of water.

'I'm not going to screw up this chance!' she thought with ardent determination. She stalked her target like a tiger would in the jungle, ready to unexpectedly pounce on her prey. Getting a good view of the equine's flank, Sakura silently leapt out of her hiding spot—two meters up on a tree branch—and landed on its back, which made the mare wildly buck from the added pressure onto its spine, trying its best to dislodge the unwanted rider.

Sakura, meanwhile, held on for dear life as she firmly gripped the horse's neck, feeling a bit irritated that this trial by summoning familiar lasted a bit too long for her tastes. She wanted to throw in the towel, but she was so close. She could feel it!

Either way, since when did her other two teammates give up?

Well, other than the fiasco in the Forest of Death, when Sasuke-kun relinquished the scroll to Snake-Face, but that was a very big exception in a no-win situation. She gave that a free pass, anyhow.

Exhausted from zipping through the village, the mare finally settled down from its previous, unruly state, breathing heavily and nostrils dripping nasal fluid.

"There, there," Sakura cooed, soothing the linear mane on the mare's head. "No need to run. I'm your friend, okay?" The equine softly snorted. "Hmph…Showed you right! Shannaro! Now, since you're calmer, will you listen to me at least?" A noncommittal grunt emerged from the mare's chest cavity. She took that as a sign of assent and sighed. "Good, because I have the perfect name for you…Kuroake…"

The mare, now dubbed Kuroake—the "Black Dawn"—neighed in delight of her new name before she petered out in hazy smoke. Sakura dropped into a crouch when the horse dispelled, her energy spent.

'So…how was that, Uchi-chan? You seem awfully quiet during this whole ordeal.'

"I was too busy laughing to really care, Pinky, but, all in all, you were damn good! Hah!" Her inner ego wiped a stray tear from her eye from the hilarity.

'Oh, great…Thanks, I guess…' the rosette-haired kunoichi mumbled, lifting a hand to wipe the sweat from her brow as she sat by the brook. She could definitely use a shower after this bothersome task…

"Either way, congratulations are in order, Soto-chan. You can now call forth your Kage Hinba at any time, if you have the right amount of energy to perform the summoning."

'That's good, because I'm beat!' Sakura leaned back on the riverbank, arms and legs splayed out like she was about to make a snow angel, and gazed up at the yellow-tinted clouds mixing with the orange backdrop of the setting sun. She sensed it; that growing drive for greater strength. The thirteen-year-old girl closed her eyes and breathed in the freshness of the grass surrounding her, feeling more complete than she ever had been before.

And to think…she owed this soul-searching journey to her blond teammate, who she initially wrote off as a bumbling dunderhead. Where would she be now without him coming across those Haruno-clan scrolls?

XXXXXXXXXX

A single eyebrow twitched on the brooding Uchiha's face as he strained his muscles in the cooling evening, charcoal-black eyes burning in fury and rage, which greatly contrasted with the starlit sky.

'Kakashi, when I'm done with this training…I'm going to do major bodily harm to you and wipe that cheery-eyed smile right off your face!'

The lone wolf of Team Seven scaled the rocky crevasse…with a humongous boulder tied around his waist and dangling a meter or so down.

"Welcome to Hell Week, Sasuke!" the Copy Ninja shouted from up above. "It's only going to get worse from here on out!"

Sasuke grumbled at his quandary, teeth clenching from the rigorous strain on his frame.

"You will thank me later!" he heard his instructor call out to him, a sadistic mirth creeping through the intonation at his expense.

'Yeah…' he thought resolutely, mind not wavering in the least. 'You're so going down, you slave-driver…'

XXXXXXXXXX

The week seemed to fly by in Naruto's point of view as he channeled his essence to conjure two, specially-designed shadow clones—one filled to the brim with water, and the other with sloppy earth. A single yip alerted him of his little cloudburst zigzagging along the manmade pond in the center of the training field. All he saw was an ocher-hued fuzz ripping and running atop of the water, trying to catch a few butterflies. It made for a heartwarming scene, Naruto glibly thought.

So far, he liked this strict training schedule that Yamato-sensei had going for him. He practiced hard for four hours, starting at noon, and end at around four or so every day, just to crunch in some time alone to perfect that little project Kakashi-sensei had for him. Thus far, he was met with decent results.

Instantly remembering what he had inadvertently done to the can of soup, the boy applied it to spinning around the liquid in the water balloon in many directions to make the latex party favor burst from the rising pressure. He found it absolutely amazing that he had been able to do just that with only one hand. The first stage of that particular technique was considered done, in the boy's blue eyes.

And now, after seeing his completed works, he forcefully dispelled them, causing them to burst into a small deluge and slimy muck, respectively. With a few other hand seals, the fresh water swirled around his fingertips, courtesy of the Suiton: Kyuusui no Jutsu—or the Water Release: Water Absorption Technique, as he kneaded the mass into a ball with his chakra, before he thrust out his cupped hands.

"Suiton: Karyuu no Jutsu!" the blond commanded from within.

The sphere of liquid between his open palms wildly spun out as a roaring, spiraling water cannon that carried with it the power of a locomotive and pounded against a rock jutting up from the ground.

"Heh…" Naruto chuckled. "I knew I'd get down that jutsu."

'And to think that this was developed from bad chakra control in the forest…' he vaguely recalled as an afterthought, thinking on that failed attempt at a Water Encampment Wall against that now-dead Zaku guy.

Shaking off that errant thought, the bewhiskered genin spun around on his heels, flying through hand seals and landed on the Seal of the Serpent. Pressing his right palm into the ground, the mud left behind from his earth-infused shadow clone started to bubble and harden, quickly lifting out of the ground.

'Daichi Kobu no Jutsu is a success!' he mentally crowed. It felt like he found another part of himself all over again.

"Think fast, Naruto-kun!"

The shout from the Mokuton ninja forced Naruto to turn around, seeing a barrage of tagged kunai flying his way. His eyes grew to the size of dinner plates. 'Oh, crud…'

U. Saru. Inu. Mi.

'Hare. Monkey. Dog. Serpent.'

"Doton: Gansou no Jutsu!"

The four hand seals Naruto used converted the Dry Land Swelling back into its sludgy consistency and formed a dome around him, adding more dirt to the mix, before forming into a rock-hard dome as the ninja spades imbedded themselves into his newly constructed defense. Hearing sizzles on the outside, the blond boy sunk himself into the ground as the exploding tags detonated, destroying his Rock Formation Technique.

Once the dust settled, Yamato snickered at his impromptu surprise attack from the shady tree, keeping the boy sharp on his surroundings. Hopefully, he did not startle the kid too much.

He turned to see a small hole begin to form in the earth in front of him. The small crack grew larger as Naruto jumped out, dust flaking off him by the handful, enraged look fixed on his face.

"What the hell, Sensei?" he bellowed. "You could've killed me!"

"Ah, but that would have been a failure on your part for not acting fast and on your toes," Yamato countered just as easily.

"For your information, I was testing out my ninjutsu, damn it! I didn't ask for a spar…or a surprise attack!"

"Touchy, are we?" the older shinobi facetiously remarked while he stood up. "Anyway, I wanted to get your attention for a minute."

"Well, you got it!"

"Watch your tone…" Yamato's face comically darkened again, setting Naruto straight with a small whimper coming from him. It was the only effective method to keep the boy cowed. "Now that there's one week remaining for your training from me, it's time that we move on to the next chakra-training exercise." Naruto decided to keep quiet, lest another outburst would put the boy back in line with the man's scare tactic. "You," he pointed at the boy and then toward the cataract, "are going to scale that waterfall with your feet. Think of it like water walking, but taken to the extreme."

The pointy-eared genin blinked and then gulped. "I'm going…to walk up that thing?"

"Let's raise the bar a bit…" With the Tiger Seal, the genetically-altered ninja moved the cliff upward by about two more meters, followed by the Ram Seal, which expanded the cascade as the volume of water flowing down grew by a significant amount.

"I love those jutsu, Sensei," Naruto piped up in a small voice, still admiring the Doton: Doryuu Jouheki and Suiton: Takitsubo no Jutsu, "but this is torture…"

"Now that you've recalibrated your chakra system with gravity," Yamato continued, paying no mind to the blond's protests, "we're going to work against it, this time." He turned to the genin for further explanation. "You will have to walk up and constantly adjust the flow of your chakra with respect to the water. To further refine your internal balance, you get to strain the muscles in your legs to run and defy gravity as you walk up the waterfall. Going up and down once is a cycle. By the time you finish within the week, I want you to successfully perform at least two cycles of scaling this waterfall. Any questions?"

The shaggy-haired blond simply sighed out the oncoming fatigue. "No, Sensei…" He tightly tied his orange-clothed forehead protector. His face turned flinty with a fierce will to overcome this obstacle. "Let's go!"

XXXXXXXXXX

Sarutobi Asuma paced around the hospital's lobby, waiting to hear the results of the ninja he managed to save, and just in the nick of time a few days back.

"Excuse me, but are you the Hokage's son?" one of the nurses on-duty asked the burly man.

The chain-smoking jounin—who really wanted to burn a cigarette—grumbled at that title. "Yes, that's me."

She extracted from a manila folder the report pertaining to the victim. "I believe these are all in order, Sarutobi-sama."

"Please, I don't care for formalities," he brushed off her overt politeness as he received the data to send to his dad. "Just call me Asuma."

The attendant bowed before leaving the hefty man's presence, leaving him to examine the report on his fellow Konoha comrade.

'If only I were a few minutes late, then that would have been it for him…'

There was no use in trying to wake him up, seeing now that he had been placed into a medically induced coma.

Luckily, to pry information from a half-dead ninja, he had an ace in the hole, even though it might be a delicate process that put both practitioner and subject at risk…

What better way to find the culprits than to call in his charge's father, Yamanaka Inoichi?

'Time to call in a favor…'

XXXXXXXXXX

Teal eyes blinked as he stood outside the door to his family business, Yamanaka Flower, thinking what he heard was absurd beyond belief. "You want me to…what, Asuma?"

The bearded jounin—his peer—sighed. "I need you to probe Gekkou Hayate's mind to find out who did this to him."

"What happened?"

"I'm not sure. It happened during the night when I was out on a stroll."

'Smoking, like always…I bet Kurenai put you out…you whipped bastard…' Inoichi jokingly thought at the cost of his companion's dignity. 'Shikaku was right: women are troublesome…'

"So, you were taking a walk and then…what else?" Asuma then told him the rest of the story as he listened with great intent. "Hm…It seems like we have a mole to pull from its hole, then."

"If you do this for me," Asuma reasoned, "then not only would we be one step closer to unraveling this mystery, but it would also benefit your daughter and the rest of the kids as well." He entertained the notion of protecting the king, at all costs, even if it meant putting his life in jeopardy to ensure that.

"…I'll see what I can do. I'll wait until Hayate's condition improves."

"That is, if he improves, Inoichi." Uncertainty crept into Asuma's speech. "There's no telling where his direction will go as of right now."

"Have a little faith, Asuma," the mind-walking jounin lightheartedly added. "Pray that he pulls through, and when he gets better, I'll poke through his mind. Deal?"

They shook hands on it. "Deal. I'll keep you posted, if Hayate-kun's health gets better or worse. If it starts slipping downhill, then you'll have to act fast."

"I'll still get the job done, Asuma."

XXXXXXXXXX

Two-and-a-half weeks have elapsed in preparation for the Chuunin Selection Final Rounds, and Sakura managed to increase her environmental awareness by an astounding ten meters, which might not have been much for a Hyuuga or an Uchiha, but for one with normal eyesight, she took it good-naturedly. Haku-neesan rarely, if ever, snuck up on her without her knowing.

Keeping on her toes while dodging sneak attacks from the odd, ice-conjuring kunoichi tended to do just that…just like now, on her seven o'clock position.

In the blink of an eye, Sakura whipped out and brandished her chakrams like a pair of brass knuckles, translucent tendrils of gray vapor drifting off the polished metal as they intercepted a kunai slash from the Hyouton mistress. From the brief stalemate, Sakura used her knee to nudge the older girl off her, creating an out for her to cartwheel to the right to avoid another swipe.

Now came the senbon—Haku-neesan's specialty.

Back-flipping to create more distance between the two, the rosette-haired kunoichi hastily unraveled the bandages from her wrist, mentally banishing her semicircular weapons in the process, to produce a few of her red, rose-petal shuriken to match the oncoming needles in a gridlock.

In these 'sneak-attack' routines, the green-eyed bookworm also realized that her projectile weaponry proficiency gradually got better. Her accuracy improved and the timing of her throws became shorter and more efficient.

Aside from the practicality of it all, Haruno Sakura was actually enjoying the training provided by her fellow colleague.

"Very good, Sakura-san!" Haku beamed with gusto. "I'm very proud of you!"

The wiz-kid from Team Seven gave her temporary mentor a bow of respect. "I ought to thank you, Haku-neesan, for coming to my aid when I needed it."

"A friend of Naruto-kun is a friend to me."

"I'm touched." Sakura gave the older girl an authentic smile for being so sweet.

"Wait, Sakura-san," she called out, now donning a serious look. "We're not out of the woods, just yet."

"…What do you have in mind?" Sakura curiously asked.

"How about we…add at least one ninjutsu to your arsenal…?"

"Ninjutsu?" She mentally listed off the several that she knew, which were Academy-ranked. "I already know a few of those…"

"Elemental ninjutsu, I mean," the elder kunoichi clarified.

Now, Sakura's mouth assumed an O-shape. "Oh…but, why that?"

"Shinobi," Haku explained, "by their namesake, have to endure, and if you dabble a bit into the many realms of jutsu, then you can utilize the tricks of the trade to persevere by any means. You don't have to be proficient; you just have to know enough in any discipline to survive."

Taking the logic into account, the cerise-locked girl was thrilled to learn. However, just one thing came up. "Wait…How do I find out my chakra nature, Haku-neesan?"

Said female ninja glanced around, fiddling around in the pockets her battle kimono provided and blushed in embarrassment when she came up empty. "Um…I seem to have forgotten some…chakra paper…"

Sakura gave her part-time tutor a flat look. "…Or did you run out?"

Haku anxiously smiled, scratching the back of her head.

Why did that make her recall the same thing Naruto did as a nervous tic?

XXXXXXXXXX

After a brief intermission, the Hyouton heiress came back, with Kakashi in tow.

Sakura's face was adorned with surprise. "Kakashi-sensei?"

She had seen Haku bob her head out of the corner of her vision. "I bumped into him on my way home."

The pink-haired genin narrowed her eyes, carefully gazing at the figure before them, before coming to a conclusion. Her eyes lit up. "He's just a clone of Kakashi-sensei…"

"Very perceptive, Sakura," the bunshin proudly remarked. "The current me is, well, out of the village for the moment, so, if you'll leave your message after the beep…"

Sakura's impatience began to spike while palming her face. "Kakashi-sensei, do you have any chakra paper on you, by chance?" She just wanted to find out her chakra nature, damn it! Was that so hard to ask?

The Copy Ninja duplicate blinked. "…I do."

The jade-eyed kunoichi perked up. "That's great! Tha—!"

"But," Kakashi's replica interrupted, clipping her gratitude as he took out the sheets, "it'll cost you."

She owlishly blinked. "What?"

The jester of a clone waved her off. "Ah, never mind. Here you go, Sakura, and I'm sorry for not finding you a tutor."

Ignoring her sensei's antics as she accepted them, Sakura shook her head. "I already found one, who was right here with us the entire time." She walked over and placed a hand on the older girl's shoulder.

The Kakashi doppelganger let loose a wistful sigh. "Ah, the wonders of girls bonding…kinky…"

The clone sped off in a Body Flicker right before Sakura had a chance to lunge at her perverted sensei…well, a copy of him, but still!

"Grr…" Sakura gritted her teeth in a snarl.

Haku then held up the rectangular sheets of paper that the younger girl dropped in her abrupt shift toward aggression. "Please, Sakura-san, let's just ignore him." She was also trying her best—and failing—to fight down the heat rising to her porcelain face.

"…Fine," the jade-eyed wiz-kid growled out, relenting on vengeance…for now. She held out her hand. Haku then passed the leaf of paper to her impromptu protégé.

The Shadow Blossom channeled some of her chakra into the paper, with nothing to show…

That was, until the paper started to shake. Then, suddenly, the paper registered the chakra nature in question.

The ice-mistress looked pensive at the result. "That's…interesting…"

It ironically fit the cherry blossom of Konohagakure…

XXXXXXXXXX

His muscles ached beyond protest. His mouth tried to produce saliva to moisten his parched throat, but to no avail. A dull throb in his skull kept him from the throes of unconsciousness.

'I wonder if this is chakra exhaustion setting in…' the prostrate boy errantly mused.

Uchiha Sasuke rested on a low-lying plateau as he gathered his bearings, blinking out the dark spots creeping around his vision while recovering.

The past couple of weeks to him, for lack of a better word, was hell. He had seen it, witnessed it, and had the scars to prove it. He never knew how he managed to make it to the start of the third week before the final rounds, but here he was, through true grit and willpower.

He started out with strength conditioning, which proved to be more of a pain in the neck than anything. Kakashi had him scale up and down the rocky ledges to build up muscle and tone him to move on to the next step.

And then, along came the evasion training…where his teacher had thrown every single thing imaginable…from kunai…to shuriken…to a lead pipe…

Yes, that even included the kitchen sink. How the Copy Ninja managed to pull off that stunt baffled the Uchiha scion to no end, as well as questioning the man's sanity. He neither wanted to inquire nor wanted to find out.

'Speak of the devil…' Sasuke craned his neck to see the silhouette blotting out the afternoon sun. The gravity-defying silver hair made him outwardly groan.

"Don't be like that, Sasuke," Kakashi mumbled over the recuperating teen. "How about we take a break and try something fun?"

The onyx-eyed avenger saw that gleam in the older ninja's eye. What was he planning? "I'm curious…" he carefully stated from his seated position. His statement was answered when Kakashi whipped out a pretty large scroll with many archaic paw-prints riddled all around the parchment. "What is that?" He closed his eyes to a mere squint, not just to limit the blinding sunlight, but to better discern the piece of parchment.

"For your efforts these past couple of weeks, I decided to reward you." He twirled the meter-and-a-half-long roll of rice paper like a baton. "This was found on that impounded barge that Gatou used to own."

"…You still didn't tell me what it is," Sasuke evenly remarked, wanting to not beat around the bush.

"I see you want to get to the point," Kakashi murmured with a sigh. "Very well, then…" He slowly opened the scroll to show to an intrigued genin as he stood up. He just saw a list of names flowing from right to left, with several blank spots available for a signature.

"…" The younger ninja blinked once…then twice…

"Well?" his mentor prompted.

"…It's a summoning contract…" the boy deadpanned.

"Right…" Kakashi drawled out. "But, it's a bit…special. It pertains to wildcats."

Once the words left the older shinobi's lips, the raven-haired rookie of the year met that with uneasiness, and looked to show his apparent disgust. His normally-slick hairstyle bristled a bit. "They aren't like Tora, are they?" he asked, holding up his hands to protect himself, almost as if the scroll was coated with a noxious odor or ready to jump out at him. 'That feline was the devil!'

"Oh, no, not at all…" the ashen-haired jounin defended. "They're like the tigers you see prowling around Training Area Forty-Four…but a bit more unique, from what I discerned of them—lynxes, bobcats…the list goes on."

That caused the dark-haired teenager to think on the pros and cons of signing his blood to bond with these overgrown kittens. He also weighed the decision to sign from his early childhood visits to the outskirts of the Fire Country.

There were Denka and Hina, two ninbyou that resided in the Uchiha clan's abandoned supply base known as Sora-ku, left in the hands of a strange cat-lady who called herself Nekobaa, and her granddaughter, Tamaki. Alas, those trips seemed like an entire lifetime ago…

Nevertheless, Sasuke pondered over the notion on whether or not there was a pact between the Uchiha and this…Sakibou clan, who originally held the summoning scroll, as noted by its previous entrees.

If it meant being one step closer to restoring his clan to its former glory, then he would assume this grand undertaking, even if he had to fight the boss summon for dominance. "I'll try it out," he coolly responded after mulling over the perks. Then again, the unknown factor that permeated his mind boiled down to what their powers would entail.

"Okay," Kakashi said, clapping his hands against the wood supporting the summoning parchment. "I may not have the same style of technique as the Legendary Three, but I do know the hand seal sequence, since I've seen it done so many times with my Sharingan out." He gave the roll of paper to his talented charge. "Now, Sasuke, I need you to make yourself bleed and sign your name, with your fingertips smeared in blood as a 'seal' at the bottom, allowing you to summon the power of these wildcats. The hand seal sequence goes as follows: Boar, Dog, Bird, Monkey, and Ram. Got that?"

The lone wolf of Team Seven did as he was told, completing the process and bandaging his left hand to stem the bleeding. He did not have the healing that Naruto possessed, sadly.

'If only…' He shook his head. 'No…I have to get stronger on my own!' The seal on his neck faintly glowed before the throbbing subsided. "Here goes nothing…" Biting his right thumb, the skilled genius flew through the five-seal sequence with unparalleled fluidity and slammed his hand onto the hard rock upon which he stood.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

A sealing array spiraled out in a web-shaped pattern on the rocky surface before smoke engulfed the smaller ninja. Sasuke stood back and batted back the cloud of vapor with flailing arms. When the smoke petered out into a light wisp, the genin kept his grin in check as he admired his handiwork.

A four-legged figure with a rather long tail emerged from the haze. The one defining trait that set it apart from normal wildlife was that the wildcat's pelt was black but riddled with red stripes.

Hazel-green eyes scanned around before setting his sights on the two humans who stood in front of him. His sweeping gaze felt like it passed right through them. Taking a whiff of the air, the essence of the blood used to summon him forced him to glare at the dark-haired kid.

The tiger-summon hummed before it spoke up, its voice clearly denoting its masculine gender…and its lack of amusement. "From what I see after three decades, you are not of the Sakibou tribe. What is the meaning behind this profane transgression? And how did you stumble upon the Sakibou's birthright?"

Uchiha Sasuke then let out his patented smirk. He started to like this, already. "Do the names Denka and Hina ring a bell to you?"

He could play Twenty Questions with this unique beast before him.

XXXXXXXXXX

Naruto played around with raw chakra in the palm of his hands, silently stewing in a quiet rage at the hands-off approach provided by his new instructor, who just left him to his devices by another waterfall located on the other side of the village.

What did he think of the super-perverted ninja, Jiraiya, who he childishly labeled 'Ero-sennin?'

Things did not pan out well upon first encounter. The bewhiskered genin openly assaulted the older ninja when he mentioned his name after some really freaky dance…

"Yamato-sensei, why are we heading back to the onsen?" Naruto whined as Doshaburi started to pant from atop his head due to the rising heat.

"We're going to meet your new teacher for the next couple of weeks, Naruto-kun," the Mokuton-infused ninja carefully responded, leaving it at just that. 'Leave it to Hokage-sama to just tell me that I'd find Jiraiya-sama where there are abundant women and equal amounts of skin…'

"I'm not liking this vibe one bit, Sensei…"

"Neither am I…"

As they rounded the corner to the relaxing hot springs, the duo looked at a very disturbing sight…

A man well into middle age incessantly snickered under his husky breaths as he looked through a knothole in the wooden fencepost that severed the men's side from the women's.

Once the man paused to jot down something on a notepad he had beside him, Naruto lost his cool. "Hey, old man! What the hell do you think you're doing?" he roared with a twinge of murderous intent.

The long-haired individual heard the brash boy, but still did not turn to meet his gaze. "Pipe down, kid. I'm doing research, so why don't you just run along like a good, little boy?" the man with red lines down his cheeks distractedly murmured, giving the brat a dismissive wave of his hand.

The bewhiskered genin snarled, showing off his elongated fangs. Then, a thought came to him. "I don't see why you have to peep at naked women through that notch in the fence, knowing they got magazines to satisfy your fetish, asshole!" he roared at the top of his lungs, which elicited shrieks, splashing water, and the wet pattering of feet on the other side of the enclosure.

That left the geta-wearing shinobi, who had been hunched over in a crouch, to grumble at his ruined moment and stood up to face the rascal who messed up his…

Seeing the stern look from the blond-haired kid threw the older ninja for a loop. "Oh, it's you…" he noted, with hardly a hint of surprise, all the while keeping his emotions from spilling out.

"Wait…you know me?" Confusion replaced the menacing look on Naruto's face.

"I know and understand all," the kabuki-themed old man boomed as he whipped and flung his hair in a wild frenzy, "for I am the Village's Madness!" His arms struck out in obtuse angles, palms facing outward. "The wandering Toad Sage from Mount Myouboku! I have journeyed far and wide, and the conquests abroad scream my name in worship and awe at my awesome skills—on the battlefield and in the bedroom!" He wagged his eyebrows in a joking gesture.

Naruto's face contorted into one of pure disgust at that. 'Is this guy for real?'

The self-proclaimed Toad Sage—in Naruto's opinion, anyway—shifted his posture as he clicked his wooden sandals against the stone walkway. "I am…the gallant Jiraiya-sama!"

The blond, at the mention of the man's name, felt his eyebrow pulse and twitch. "So…you're the infamous Jiraiya, huh?"

"Why, yes, I am!" Jiraiya of the Toads rumbled with fervor. "One of the Legend—" He stopped speaking when his fist met the knee of the boy who just now openly attacked him out of pure reflex. He grunted due to the force of the impact. "Whoa, there, kiddo! You got quite the power backed into your taijutsu…"

The blue-eyed jinchuuriki, initially angry and unknowingly dislodged his companion from his head, had shock written all over his face. 'This guy's huge!'

Like tossing away a balled-up piece of paper, the Sage from Myoubokuzan haphazardly tossed the boy over his shoulder by his thigh. Without even looking in the boy's direction, he snootily added, "You're a few decades short of ever getting the drop on me, brat!"

Due to his ingrained training, the blond-haired genin deftly landed on his feet, blue eyes trying their best to burn a hole through the back of the man's skull. He then pointed for emphasis. "Hey, old man, don't look down on me! I'm gonna be Hokage someday, so you better recognize, chump!"

Jiraiya snorted, looking at the silent watcher of the scene. "Heh…When pigs fly…"

"Go to hell, pervert!"

"Correction: I'm a super pervert!" the older ninja proudly crowed with a huge grin on his face as he turned around.

"That's nothing to be proud of! You really need to get a life!"

"Uh…Naruto-kun…" Yamato chimed in to stem the little shouting war. "…This is your new instructor, so you should learn how to play nice…" A somber shadow fell over the man's face when he gave Naruto 'the look.' "Do I make myself clear?"

"C-Crystal, sir!"

"Good…"

"I'll give you time to appeal to my interest," the middle-aged hermit explained to the boy, in complete business mode, "but, if you don't impress me, then you can forget about the training I have for you."

Needless to say, given the nature of Ero-sennin, his new nickname for the old fart, he managed to use his Oiroke form to convince the nomadic sage to train the boy. However, he felt like there was more to the perverted hermit taking him in as an apprentice ninja than met the eye.

He wondered what the older man had in store for him in the last couple of weeks.

After giving the rundown on his abilities so far—minus the Phantom Flame, Hyouton and Mokuton, which his furry tenant advised to leave out for the time being—Jiraiya assessed him on his elemental arsenal, which caused him to inwardly grin and show off to his heart's content, leaving the man blinking a bit before he bobbed his head. On what, the blond could not tell, but the gleam in Ero-sennin's eyes told him that he must have found a diamond in the rough with him.

"It feels like you've found your calling in ninjutsu, kid," Ero-sennin reasoned, a twinge of pride underneath the remark. "A bit wet behind the ears, but in due time, I can make you famous!" He snickered. "You could be just as great as the Yondaime!"

The blue-eyed ninja looked at him oddly, at the mention of his father. "You knew the Yondaime?"

"Of course! He was my prized student, after all!"

Naruto must have done something to get that kind of high praise…from none other than his dad's teacher, no less. Kind of poignant, if you asked him, and how history seemed to repeat itself.

His retrospection on the past week's events screeched to a halt when he saw his tawny canine speed up in a flash of white light before barreling into the trunk of a tree, splintering it with relative ease and caused half of the wood to fall to the side.

'How's that, Master Naruto?' Doshaburi asked for praise.

"You're doing great on the Tama Tosshin! Keep it up, buddy!"

The globule of energy hypnotically twirled around his palm, giving the blond shinobi some ideas on inventing a few new jutsu out of its mechanics, but, for the moment, he was fresh out. So far, from that mysterious sphere-like technique Kakashi-sensei had shown him, he just could not form enough power to completely shred a rubber ball, as per his initial mentor's suggestions in the scroll. With the third week nearing its end, Naruto felt that the progress moved along pretty quickly when his new sensei did not hover over him. 'I should have this stage down by the end of the week, if not the start of the last week before the final rounds…'

"Hey, kid, what are you doing?"

Sensing (and hearing) his part-time instructor waltz up, he immediately canceled his chakra flow and stashed away the piece of parchment. "Just…experimenting, Ero-sennin…"

"Didn't take you for a mad scientist with chakra," Jiraiya pointed out as his geta softly clicked against the dirt.

Naruto stood on his feet and walked up to his approaching mentor. "Say, Ero-sennin, when are you going to show me some kick-ass ninjutsu? I'm starving for attention here!"

"I was just thinking about that, actually, on my way here," the older ninja answered by the seat of his pants in a half-truth.

"Well? What's the plan?" As per the norm, his impatience started to get the better of the blue-eyed demon vessel.

"Start by warming up. Battle a few of your clones while I fine-tune which jutsu I could teach you."

"You're just biding time, Ero-sennin!" the kid feverishly accused. "I bet you were off peeping again! What kind of sensei are you, huh?"

"The naughty kind!" he triumphantly beamed, getting the boy's hackles risen.

Naruto trembled in mounting anger before summoning a horde of his doppelgangers. He needed to burn off some steam, lest he go mad on account of a certain, wayward instructor.

XXXXXXXXXX

The village pariah heavily breathed as the last clone got destroyed with a very swift, wind-powered kick to the side of its temple. It took Naruto about a good four minutes to exterminate four hundred copies that had the same moves that he possessed under his belt. It felt a bit strange that, whenever he sparred with his replica, he got a reading on his progress; like he got to know himself better with each clone dispelling—their thought patterns, their plans of attack, and their strategies…

"Very good, Naruto," Jiraiya spoke up and clapped at a good show, fox kit yapping beside him in approval as well.

"You finally mentioned my name, Ero-sennin. Why's that?" he cautiously inquired.

'Tipped my hand too early, huh?' The older man had to backpedal. "…I'll explain later," he cryptically commented while absentmindedly scratching Doshaburi behind the ears. "But, for now, how do you feel?"

Getting his breathing back to normal, the blue-eyed genin sat down beside the giant of a man. He rubbed at his cheeks. "I can't really describe it…" He saw the critical gaze from Ero-sennin through his peripheral vision, so he explained a bit more in detail. "I feel like, whenever they dispel, I get a sense of who I am when I'm fighting."

"Ah, so you know the other perk of the Kage Bunshin, then," Jiraiya pensively intoned. "Say, Naruto…"

"Yes, Ero-sensei?"

"So, it's Ero-sensei, now?" Jiraiya snorted. "The kind of respect I get for a man of great renown like me…"

"Hey, you said you spied on women for a living, so I thought it fitting, so, nyeh!" Naruto stuck out his tongue in a childish manner.

"Anyhow," the Legendary Ninja mumbled, "what makes you think you're Hokage material? It's not a job for those with dedication to the cause."

"I want to be the best Hokage so people can stop looking down on me and treating me like the common dirt they walk across every single day!" the blue-eyed Uzumaki reasoned while his voice picked up in speed and volume. "I want to be great and protect the things I cherish the most…and the people I hold dear to me!"

He heard the burly laugh from the Toad Hermit. "That's not a very good reason, at all, kid!"

Naruto's cheeks puffed up in embarrassment. "Why are you laughing at me?"

He waved off the kid as he got his chuckles under control. "No, I mean, the way you approach your ascent to the Hokage mantle is flawed, my boy. Selfish, even. Sure, you'd have a battalion of ninja under your command, but you have to ask yourself this: have you mastered yourself to the point that you can be able to separate your personal and public life? Will you willingly put the people you hold close in the line of fire? On that same note, have you fully tapped into your true power? Would that be where you truly shine?" He saw the kid quietly think on that as his eyes—and ears—drooped a bit. "Mastering others makes you powerful, no doubt, but mastering yourself makes you fearless and resolute in guiding your decisions regarding Konohagakure's safety."

"I don't understand you, at all, Ero-sennin," Naruto muttered, feeling rather disheartened. "It's like you keep spouting random things that don't make much sense."

"You just have to get a broader sense of seeing the world in the big picture, Naruto," Jiraiya elaborated. "Wisdom comes with age and experience. If you really think about it, Naruto, despite your upbringing, your logic surrounding the Hokage seat is self-centered and of the 'all about me' mentality, which should not be the case when it comes to having power. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Remember that well…" A dark look crept across the older man's features, instantly recalling his teammate who fell from grace and descended into darkness.

"Ero-sensei?" He felt uneasy when the older ninja had a quickly passing downcast look on his face, making him seem older.

He then frowned, clearing away the errors of past judgment. "During your clone-spamming battle," Naruto laughed at how he phrased it, "I saw you hesitating on using your ice ninjutsu." He saw the brat jump in surprise. "Same goes with using wood, too, but Sarutobi-sensei banned you from using it."

The bewhiskered genin sputtered. "Y-You knew all along?"

A confident smirk crept along Jiraiya's weathered features. "What kind of buffoon do you take me for, boy? I told you before. I know and understand all!"

"I guess you know about…the fur-ball, right?" Naruto asked in a very small voice.

"I do…" the man sadly answered.

"…You don't hate me, do you?"

A large hand clapped on the boy's shoulder for comfort. "Not at all, kiddo! Hell, were it not for some special people in my life that are linked to you, I wouldn't have been that great in the sealing arts."

The younger of the two felt reassured. "Thanks, Jiraiya-sensei. And yes, I'll use that, but only when you show that you're competent enough to train me!"

The Densetsu no Nin grumbled and harrumphed, "You're such a brat, kid."

"I am to be a pain in the ass!" A sunny smile radiated from the blond's face.

"If you want to be a pain, then I'll gladly show you two jutsu that I want you to learn…hehe…"

He saw the sinister look befitting a prankster. Chills rankled his spine, warning him to run away from this guy…and fast! 'Something tells me I'll be hurting pretty badly…'

"I'm loving this fellow pervert, already…"

'Not now, Fuzz-Butt!"

XXXXXXXXXX

The time was around five in the evening, on the twenty-eighth of July—ten days before the start of the final rounds, and Naruto walked off the dull cramps in his joints from another rigorous training day with Ero-sennin. The goal, this time, entailed defeating a replica of the ridiculously powerful ninja.

Long story short, the blond had his ass handed to him on a silver platter…with a garnish.

"Cheer up, Master Naruto," Doshaburi spoke up after an uneasy silence. "You almost had him, though!"

"What are you, nuts? I got creamed, Dosha-chan!" Naruto waved around his hands in defeat. Did he greatly underestimate Orochimaru in that regard? He sparred with his teammate, for crying out loud! Were the Sannin truly the stuff of myth and lore, despite their…glaringly obvious vices?

'Well, one likes to swap skin, and the other likes to cop a feel at skin every day of the week…'

His musings skidded to a halt as he heard sounds of a confrontation. His pointy ears twitched. "Do you hear that?"

His ocher-toned fox kit whiffed the air and his muzzle scrunched up. "I smell blood, M-Master…"

"Let's go!" The fox-boy duo dashed down the dusty alley and up on top of a low-lying roof, following the sounds of the fighting. When they stopped to see what was going on, Naruto's blood began to boil.

A kunoichi with camouflage khaki pants became the victim on the receiving end of a strong fist from one of her own comrades.

As she slid to a stop in the dirt road, her masked assailant talked down to her in a condescending tone. "You worthless piece of scum! You failed spectacularly in your debut fights. Feh, no wonder Orochimaru-sama kept you in the dark all this time…"

Naruto gnashed together his teeth in revulsion. "To sink so low as to attack your own comrade. He's lower than scum!" he sneered under his breath from their vantage point.

"I don't think this is a wise decision, boy," the fox in his gut advised in his initial judgment. "To involve yourself in the affairs of another village would risk an international incident."

'He's probably a Chuunin, but I should always assume that he's a threat, regardless,' Naruto reasoned to himself more than anything, recalling Jiraiya's word to the wise. 'I guess it's time to save the damsel in distress…'

"If you'd make a career out of it, then I'm okay with that!" The Kyuubi showed off his white fangs in a grotesque smile that would have left little kids in tears.

'Oh, you…' The boy rolled his eyes before rounding on his furry companion. "Dosha-chan, stay up top for standby. If things go south, then alert the ANBU, okay?"

"G-Got it, Master…"

As the blond crept down the gutter and behind the occupied Oto-ninja, he realized that his odd string of luck came into play, for the ski-masked man was not very aware of his environs. The unidentified Oto-nin fell to a firm knife-edged chop across a nerve in his neck.

The blue-eyed shinobi shook his head and sighed. "And I thought this guy was a pro…"

"Kind of a letdown, if you ask me. I'd give him…an F for effort."

'You're a tough critic to appease,' Naruto sardonically thought. He then turned his eyes on the bloody mess of a kunoichi. Aside from the swollen bruises across her skin, he came across her defining feature—long, ebony hair that was at least knee-length. 'I've seen her before…' After seeing her squirm, he observed more than a few sets of footprints that all converged on where the near-unconscious girl lay.

"You're that Tsuchi Kin character, aren't you?" he asked, trying to get her to speak. "The same bitch who got her clock cleaned by Fuzzy-Brows in the prelims?"

"Why…why did you…come?" she asked, straining to keep awake.

"…Let's just say I have a soft spot for the ladies, even though your mouth probably got you in trouble on more than one occasion," Naruto offhandedly remarked, thumbing the notch on his kunai. "So, looks to me that your so-called friends tenderized you like meat."

"Go…back…" she whimpered.

"Huh? Couldn't hear you."

"I said go back!" Kin shouted, coughing a bit after the outburst. "You have no business with—!" Words struggled to come out of her mouth as her vision began to swim into the darkness.

"Damn…" The bewhiskered ninja walked up to her and checked her pulse. "She's just out of it, for now." He hoisted the smaller girl on his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, intending to carry her back to his apartment where he presumed would be the last spot anyone would check to find one of their own, now about to go missing.

"I sense wariness within you, Naruto." The Nine-Tails got better at reading the color of the kid's emotions.

'I'm not doing this out of pity…' he rationalized.

"I think you're deluding yourself…"

'Okay, maybe I am, but I'm going to get her to speak on why they did this to her.'

"Your selfless act of putting yourself on the chopping block amuses me so." The off-kilter tenant drummed his nails across the metallic floor of his mindscape. "You may be allowing a potential threat to sleep near you and Haku-chan." He smirked. "You play a dangerous game, my dear warden."

'Action, now. Consequences, later.'

XXXXXXXXXX

The pungent odors of a smelling-salt caused Kin's nose to crinkle in disgust as her head turned away. One of her eyes fluttered open while the other remained half-closed due to the puffiness around it. She gazed around at the scenery.

'Green-colored walls, small dimensions…I'm in a flat or an apartment complex…' she calculated in her mind. Her musings were cut short when a sound akin to clearing someone's throat registered in her ears. 'There's someone in the room! Could it be an enemy?' Kin reached down to her thigh to—

"Ah, you're awake. Good. And you can forget about your weaponry. I, personally, had to put away your little needles. You could poke an eye out with them."

Frantic eyes dreadfully rotated and met the sky-blue irises with slit pupils—the source of the happy-go-lucky phrasing. "You!" she jeered.

"Hi to you, too," he all but deadpanned.

Kin started to get outraged by this boy's blasé attitude. "I didn't ask you to save me!" she bellowed as she tried to get up out of his bed. She distractedly wondered how come the blond ninja did not tie her up with ropes, twine or ninja wire.

The blond boy pursed his lips. "I didn't do it to save you, Kin-chan."

"You better not call me that!" she growled. "We're not friends!"

The kid just shrugged. "So, Kin-chan, as I was saying before I was rudely interrupted…" He let her snarl to let off some steam. "…I didn't save you, just because. I did it so I can get some info out of you. Who are you working for, and what ties do you have to a guy named Orochimaru?"

The mention of the snake-charmer caused the dark-eyed girl to wince a bit. "He's our master…and that's all you're getting from me!"

Disbelief crawled all over the boy's facial features. "I still don't believe you, unless you really are that low of a peon for him to not care about you, at all…"

"How dare you speak ill of Orochimaru-sama!" she venomously spat.

Naruto was not going to put up with a smart-mouthed hussy in his presence. He wound up his back hand and struck home right on Kin's damaged cheek, eliciting a drawn out groan in agony.

"Quiet, you!" he boomed, eyes losing all sense of warmth, leaving behind cold fury. "From what I saw, you just got beat down like a dog. The least I could get would be a 'thank-you,' but no, I don't even get that!" Most men in Naruto's situation would have easily tried to solicit favors out of a captive kunoichi for their sick kicks. The blond demon vessel proved far above that.

The door to his bedroom creaked open, revealing his roommate with a tray, a kettle, and a couple of cups. "I…brought some tea for you, Naruto-kun…" The smile from her face fell at the sight of another girl in her savior's bed. 'What is the meaning of this?'

"Sit it by the bed, Haku-chan…" he subtly ordered the older girl to do so. Keeping a close eye on their not-really-captive hostage, Naruto summoned a shadow clone. "You, keep an eye on her, and if she moves, you know what to do." The identical replica grimly nodded, the signal already given.

As Haku went over to the nightstand, her eyes narrowed with caution as she saw the musical eighth note engraved on the other kunoichi's headband, which now neatly rested on it, its cloth wrapping delicately tucked in from both sides to support the metal plate. She then ambled with the real Naruto past the threshold to his bedroom, and out into the foyer.

"She's from Otogakure…" the ice-mistress mumbled in a whisper as her blond hero kept a vigilant eye on the now-closed door.

"Yeah," he confirmed, keeping his voice low so that Kin could not hear them, either, "but I think she's signed on to the Hidden Sound for the wrong reasons…"

"Oto was a recently developed hidden village…" Haku rubbed her forehead in thought. "I want to suspect that it's made up of defectors and other runaway shinobi…or those of weak will and yearned for a sense of belonging."

"I don't like the fact of people blindly following someone like a lost puppy or a herd of sheep…" Noting who stood in front of him, he amended, "I mean, no offense to you, Haku-chan. Your circumstances were a bit more…peculiar."

"Yeah…" she sadly intoned while rubbing at her arm.

Naruto easily read the body language from his female companion. "Why do you seem uneasy with her in our home? It's not like I like her, or anything. I'm just doing my job." He held her hands in his to soothe her subtle jealousy. "Look, Haku-chan, you and I share a bond that no one can break. We both know how it was to feel unappreciated and undervalued before we found the people who accepted us for who we are. Learn to have a little faith in what I do."

Brown eyes averted blue. She did have her complete trust in her savior, but she had no idea on how to voice that in any way possible. "I…"

"Hm?"

"Thank you…Naruto-kun…"

"Hey, don't sweat it!" he chirped with a foxy smile. "Now, since my clone didn't dispel, I assume she's staying put." To confirm his suspicion, much to his surprise, the clone turned around, shrugged and moved out of the way, to see the battered girl fast asleep and resting peacefully.

One thought came to the blond's mind, which then came out as a frustrated grumble. "Oh, great. Now, where am I gonna sleep?" He heard his friend thickly swallow. "It's getting late." He peered at the alarm clock by his bed, on the nightstand. "Nine-thirty? It's almost bedtime, damn it!"

"Um…" Blue eyes focused on the older girl's face, which looked just as innocent, with a dash of pink lining her cheeks. "…You could…sleep with me, Naruto-kun…"

The only boy in the room—minus the vulpine who scratched at the floor in the dining room—owlishly blinked. Did he just hear that correctly? "You…and me…in bed…together…?" He blinked a few more times before rubbing his scalp and let out a shaky breath.

"We'll be clothed, and we're all friends, right?" the Hyouton heiress supplied as a supporting argument to the situation at hand, rather than a con. That still did not ease off the blush, though.

"I haven't done this with anyone, actually," Naruto muttered.

"Go, boss!" his clone shouted with a thumb up in the patented Nice Guy™ pose.

"Shush!" he hissed in a low voice. "You'll wake up Kin-chan over there!"

"Oh, sorry," it sheepishly remarked. "My bad, boss…"

"Anyway," the bewhiskered ninja spoke up, face feeling a bit warm, "sure, I'll sleep with you. Sure as hell beats sleeping on the couch."

The fox did not object to the notion, either. 'Cha-ching!'

He turned to his clone. "How long do you have left before you run out of chakra?"

The Naruto bunshin blinked. "About a few more hours…Why?"

"I might have to dispel you and summon a new one with a bit more energy in it to stay awake and keep an eye on Kin-chan, in case she tries anything funny while we're sleeping. Maybe two, if push comes to shove."

"Add another," his clone suggested without a hint of thought. "I can use some company."

"Man…this is just so weird."

"What?"

The authentic genin shook his head. "I'm talking to myself. I must be going nuts." That drew forth an awkward chuckle from his doppelganger.

"I guess we'll have tea for another day." Haku's lips twitched into a frown before assuming a thin line. She advanced to the nightstand to pick up the cold brew and exited Naruto's bedroom. "I'll be waiting in my bedroom, Naruto-kun, when you're ready."

'Why does this still feel like a really awkward situation?' The blue-eyed shinobi had an unreadable look on his face as he conjured another copy. "You two know your jobs. Alternate sleep between the two of you to slow down the chakra drain. Got it?"

"Should we secure her to the bed as a hostage?" the fresh clone asked.

"Yeah, just like that one movie!" the other added.

The second clone appeared thoughtful, hand on his chin. "I wonder if chains and whips excite her…"

"Guys," Naruto grated out, "focus…"

Sensing the grave tone the original put forth, both replicas snapped to attention. "Yes, sir!"

"Good. I guess, to make us feel less ill at ease, go ahead and restrain her with a spool of ninja wire, but don't go overboard, okay?" The newly created clone's grin enveloped the lower half of his face. '…I still wonder about these sentient and independently thinking clones…'

Knowing that the clones went to occupy themselves, Naruto took the time to quickly disrobe and put on his pajamas, along with his odd-looking nightcap. When the duplicates returned, he tiptoed off as they worked on binding the Oto-kunoichi. Once he reached the threshold of Haku's door, his heart started to race. It was the first time he shared a bed with anyone…let alone, a member of the opposite sex.

'But…why am I so nervous, though?' He hesitated when his hand touched the doorknob. 'Haku-chan's my friend, and I said I wouldn't do anything that'd make her uncomfortable…' He put his word and his nindou at stake. Eyes burning in resolution, he turned the handle and proceeded into his fellow companion's room.

In contrast to the boy's green-tinted walls in his bedroom, the ice-conjuring kunoichi painted hers with a shade of purple…or mauve…or something close to that.

Speaking of the warmhearted kunoichi, she looked up at her personal hero, eyes lidded from exhaustion.

Naruto gulped. He did not expect to see Haku-chan waiting for him like that—body turned to the side, showing off her delicate curves under the sheets…

So sultry…so seductive without her knowing it…so tempting to just let his inhibitions go to satiate his teenage hormones…

'Get a grip, Naruto!' he chastised himself for even considering those lustful desires. 'Remember your ninja way!'

"Are you coming?" she innocently asked.

Naruto closed his eyes and inwardly groaned. 'Wrong word choice, Haku-chan…' He walked over and slid in, flat on his back and sheets up to his chin. His digits tightly clenched the sheets. "Hm…It's pretty comfortable…"

"I got it from a stipend for a few errands around the Hokage Tower," Haku mentioned.

"That's nice…" the blond said with an indescribable tone.

"Is something bothering you?" Her breath tickled his cheeks.

He tried his hardest to keep down his little soldier. "N-No, everything's A-okay!" he squeaked.

"You're duping yourself again, boy…"

The blond inhaled and sharply exhaled. 'Not you, too, fox…'

"All right…" Haku paused before realizing something. "Oh, just to let you know, Naruto-kun, I tend to get a bit…clingy whenever I sleep in the bed." She gave her savior a kindred smile. "I often wake up with a pillow nestled between my arms and legs…"

Apparently, someone wanted to come out and play…and not in the way Naruto wanted. 'Oh, by the gods, help me!'

"Do you mind if I snuggle with you, Naruto-kun?" she demurely inquired, causing Naruto to slightly choke and cough on his own spit.

"Uh…sure…" He turned over on the other side, his back facing his female friend. He did not want her to bear witness to…his personal dilemma.

When he felt soft, warm pillows lay against his back, and delicate hands easing around his waist, Naruto's other head was not going back down for the rest of the night.

'Damn it all…'

"Come on, boy…Just the tip…" the carmine demon whined.

'Go…to hell…Fuzz-Butt!'

XXXXXXXXXX

Cerulean eyes the color of the sky blankly stared at a pair of pupil-less, white Byakugan the hue of fresh snow.

Uzumaki Naruto uncomfortably sat across from a neutral-faced Hyuuga Hiashi, twenty-eighth clan head of the Main Branch Hyuuga clan, in his study within the clan complex.

He had been summoned to his door pretty early in the morning by a Hyuuga messenger, denoting the time and place of the meeting. Now, here he sat, on a rather uncomfortable tatami mat, as the two had a silent war of chicken, waiting for the other set of eyes to either blink or look away.

Silence just was not Naruto's thing. "You wanted to speak with me, personally, Hiashi-sama?" he asked with the utmost politeness. He felt it prudent to keep matters maintained on a professional level of decorum, for the clan head before him carried a great amount of political weight. To slight him would be tantamount to social suicide.

"Yes," the older man answered, his tone of voice even—befitting a noble of his stature. "I wanted to speak with you in regard to my daughter…"

"Hinata-chan? Is something wrong with her?" he queried, worry seeping through his questions.

"Yes, and no, nothing is wrong with her," Hiashi allayed, taking note that it relaxed the boy. "She's recovering well, actually."

The blond sighed in relief. "Thank goodness…"

"You've taken a liking to my elder daughter, I presume?" A delicate eyebrow quirked in amusement, even though his face remained impassive.

He shrugged his shoulders. "She's got a strong heart, Hiashi-sama," he commented with unabashed pride. "She's made a lot of strides to get where she is now."

"I see…" The Hyuuga patriarch then blinked once. "…and I seem to have lost at our little 'blinking' game, huh?"

The blue-eyed shinobi just blinked soon after and chuckled. "I didn't know you had a funny bone in your body, sir."

"Not many people do." He had to uphold a dignified poise that associated with the title of clan head. "However, I feel that I am digressing." His eyes then turned sharp and calculating. "Did you teach Hinata unorthodox ninjutsu?"

'Whoa…Turned the tables on me at the drop of a conical hat, eh?' Naruto cleared his throat. "Well, yes, and I do have my reasons for it." Slowly, he drummed up his list. "Did it not state in the common guidelines that a ninja must delve into the branch arts of techniques? That includes ninjutsu and genjutsu, which extend beyond taijutsu. Relying too much on taijutsu will leave you more exposed, in a sense."

"We have special techniques through our Gentle Fist style that covers variable ranges," Hiashi smoothly countered.

"Hiashi-sama, if I may?"

"Acknowledged, Uzumaki-san."

"I know that you're showing tough love to your clan," Naruto observed, "but that doesn't mean tearing down Hinata-chan's already fragile self-confidence. I would consider not taking advantage of having a family, unlike me, who was born with nobody."

"Watch your tongue, Uzumaki-san," the clan head warned. The boy started to slide into familiar—and really upsetting—territory with the kid's train of thought.

"If I were you, I'd value my family, for they can be taken away in the blink of an eye…in a heartbeat…"

That statement felt like the wound on Hiashi's heart reopened. However, on the surface, he flawlessly hid away the pain. "While you may believe that, Uzumaki-san, sometimes, you can't protect all of them," he countered. "All that you hold dear…may one day be taken from you, and you have to steel yourself for when that comes to pass, in order to not break if tragedy hits close to home." It went both ways when he said it like that; mostly out of reassurance with regard to his twin brother's sacrifice despite his wishes. He was willing to lay down his life, but Hizashi chose a different path, leaving Hiashi out of options beyond his control.

With his tight response, Naruto mentally grimaced at how he stomped on uneasy ground with the clan head. "I…apologize, Hiashi-sama." He looked down at his lap. "I didn't meant to bring up a sensitive topic. I spoke out of turn."

"Uzumaki-san, you know not of the weight of hard decisions. On rare occasions, the elements work against you to keep you secure, despite your volition to involve yourself. Consider them blessings and move onward." He let loose a shallow, but carefully controlled, huff.

The blue-eyed shinobi warred within himself for a few seconds. 'I'm running dry, here, fox. What do you think? You read a human's body language better than we can!'

"I feel that he's not ready to face reality, just yet. He's saving face to keep the status quo," the Kyuubi reasoned, keeping close eyes on how the Byakugan-wielder carried himself. "There's more to this than what he lets on…or has revealed."

"Is that all you have for me, Hiashi-sama?" Naruto questioned, yearning to leave the stuffy office.

"…Yes, Uzumaki-san. You may go…" He started to jot down some characters on a calligraphy scroll.

The bewhiskered blond stood up and headed to the shouji leading out before stopping. "Hiashi-sama…"

"Yes?" he curiously asked.

"If you don't have it in your heart to change the clan by saving face," he then turned to stare eye-to-eye with him, sky-blue irises glowing in power and strength of character, "then I will carry the torch when I become Hokage." He let loose one of his vulpine grins. "What is a boat without a wind in its sail? It's stuck on shore or at sea." He hinted, just enough, toward the clan leading to stagnation that the clan head immediately caught the reference. What he did not relay, on the other hand, was to completely change what has been established as the norm, but merely finding a way to provide some flexibility in the clan repertoire…in addition to the ingrained philosophy that permeated the dysfunctional family. "Now, I need to see Hinata-chan before I meet up with Ero—I mean, my temporary teacher at noon. It was nice talking with you, Hiashi-sama, and…thanks, I guess, for being cordial with me, the village's ruffian."

Once the troublesome blond left his presence to see his elder daughter, Hiashi heaved a long sigh, dropping his formal ink brush back into the canister of the charcoal-based substance, motivation to practice character-writing chucked out of his mind. How did the Uzumaki boy manage to push the right buttons to irritate him?

'Just like Kushina-dono…'

XXXXXXXXXX

"You know, Kin-chan, you can always go, and we can forget this whole ordeal ever happened," Naruto noted as he looked at the unwanted guest in his room, putting out his new attire for the Chuunin finals tomorrow.

The Oto-kunoichi hugged her knees and propped her chin on them. She was told she was not a prisoner, since she hardly knew anything, and was told to go several times before, but, for some strange reason, the long-haired brunette decided to stick around, much to Haku's slight annoyance. "I'm actually liking it here, to be honest…"

The blond flapped his red muscle shirt to rid it of wrinkles. "I wouldn't be surprised that your village has a search party for you. What about your teammate? What was his name? The mummy-looking guy?"

A dark look burst onto Kin's face. "Dosu's dead…"

That gave the boy cause for concern. "Really?"

"Yeah…" she spoke in a small voice, black eyes downcast. "He thought he could try to take Gaara's place and fight your teammate in the final rounds, even though he already washed out. He did it out of personal pride…and revenge for killing Zaku in the preliminaries."

The blond ninja strung up his midnight-blue-toned battle coat with an available coat hanger. "Well, he lost, fair and square. It's a shame he had to go out like that," he callously mentioned, testing out the black armor padding for his shins and arms.

The fourteen-year-old female ninja glanced at her hitai-ate on the nightstand. "Unlike in Konoha, Oto-ninja are cutthroat and care little about team dynamics…just so long as we get the mission completed."

'The blood-red muscle shirt…check. Wild-child battle coat with red flames on the bottom hem…check. Shin greaves and arm guards are secure, and the dark-blue pants have no tears in them.' The pointy-eared genin hummed as he realized that his new outfit was ready to go. "Hey, Haku-chan, do you think I should have gotten some kind of chest protection?"

"It wouldn't have hurt," Haku answered while seated near the windowsill, checking her cache of senbon.

"…You use senbon, too?"

"Why, yes, I do," the slightly older kunoichi tightly replied. "I still don't trust you being here, Kin-san."

"Girls, as long as you're under my roof, let's all try to get along," the only male human in the room snipped. "We'll figure this out once the final rounds are over."

He had a long night ahead of him…as well as explaining his situation to the higher-ups. 'I hope I don't get the book thrown at me…'

XXXXXXXXXX

Yamanaka Inoichi worked diligently at Konoha Hospital for the past several days, trying his best to probe the unconscious shinobi's mind. His incorporeal representation in the younger ninja's mind wandered through all kinds of doors, leading to Hayate's most notable memories.

He should have skipped over the red-tinted door, for he kind of did not want to see him and Yuugao go at it like rabbits.

At any rate, he had to peel through the near-dead ninja's head like an onion to get to the deep-rooted traumatic experiences, and the most recent one felt like it had been on repeat when he opened that pathway.

After getting a crystal-clear image from his mind's eye leading up to Hayate's comatose state, Inoichi quickly opened up his own orbs in startling revelation.

There was a traitor amidst the Hidden Leaf Village; someone who stepped on the foundations of their homeland; someone who went against the very principles their forefathers worked hard to strive for, achieve, and maintain.

"This is blasphemy…" the blond-haired shinobi muttered, voice picking up in volume as he tried to wrap his head around the insanity of it all. "This is madness!" He dashed out of the east wing of the hospital to relay the data to the intelligence corps.

It was an open act of war, waiting to happen…

…and why did he get the urge to just…kick someone in the chest right off the Hokage Rock Monument?

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A/N: And…cut! I think that should cover the entire one-month reprieve in its entirety. Kind of mind-boggling and humbling when you see it on a Word document. Anyway, some things pertaining to canon had gotten a nod in their direction, but overall, there are going to be gradual shifts that will diverge a bit from the original storyline. But, fear not; it won't stray too far out of left field. I'll still keep the story as compliant to canon in Part One as I will allow, but then again, what point would there be if I stuck to what was already written? That's rhetorical, so, please, don't answer.

As per the norm, I'd like to give credit to weixuan18, Arashi the Solar Phoenix, and EliadS for their kind words and suggestions for sculpting the direction of this bridge chapter, with my Muse steering me on a wild ride in the process. One wanted to kick the other for the first part of Naruto's chakra-training exercise, but I decided to run damage control and squash it before it got bigger than that. :P

In this chapter, there are a whopping five Easter eggs. Yes, you read that right. See if you can spot them, and I'll give you acknowledgments in the next chapter, okay? You'll get credit for at least listing two. Some are obscure; others, blatantly obvious. For those who can pinpoint all five, you deserve something special. I'll figure out that one when I get to that bridge to burn…er, cross over.

With that noted, time to run the list of those who got the reference from last chapter, which was, in fact, a slight jab at the Twilight saga. Those who answered correctly were: Daniel Lynx, Rena the pirate jedi wizard, Tempest of Reach

No omake this time around. If anything, I'll probably throw in a couple in the next chapter, since this one kind of spiraled out of control. Sorry if you're a bit put off by the length…or if you had to read this in more than one sitting. Either way, I hope you all enjoyed it. I know I enjoyed writing it. The monstrous length proves that, already. That's for sure. :D

So, once again, I ask that you leave a review if you have read it. Let me know what you think. Favorite it, tell your friends, whatever. I'm trying to grow here.

Side Note: I'd also like to take this time to personally apologize to anyone who has ever been offended by what I have written to you, whether it was through a review reply, or a PM. I didn't mean to come off as snarky. Then again, that was three years ago, back when I was in college. I've mellowed out since then (I'm tamer; I swear I don't bite), and I'd like to bury the hatchet with some of you—especially to the ones who tried to give me criticism, only to end up rebuking you and 'talking down' to you, causing you to not review, anymore. Those weren't my intentions. Consider this my olive branch/clean slate approach from here on out, all right?

In addition (for those who are dying to use my techniques for your own story), if you would like to use some of the techniques I have crafted for this fic (or any fic hereafter, really), then you may do so, but on certain conditions:

One: I have an entitled right to know which jutsu you are going to use, since I'm the creator of them. Notify me by PM, e-mail, or instant messenger, please.

Two: Credit must go to me. You cannot, under any circumstances, claim them as your own.

Three: Since I created the jutsu, you cannot give someone else the okay to utilize my techniques, under any circumstances. This rule should be an automatic given.

Four: You cannot use my summoning contracts due to the amount of research and balance I've put into them. I have my personal reasons regarding them, anyhow.

And, on that note, I will end it here, so, show me some love with a review, and I'll see you the next time I update. Enjoy your day (or night, depending on your time zone)! Later!

The Chuunin Selection Examinations final rounds have come! What lies in wait for our chuunin-hopefuls, even though outside forces converge on Konohagakure? Stay tuned to find out!

Jikai (Next time…), on Birth of a Legend: The Fox Druid…

Looming Shadows: The Creeping Limit

Romaji/Jutsu Guide

Youjutsu: literally, "dark arts," but roughly translates to "black magic"

Ten no Juin: Cursed Seal of Heaven

Tokujou: abbreviated term for Toku(betsu) Jou(nin), or a Special Elite Ninja

Densetsu no Nin: "Legendary Ninja," or, literally, "Ninja of Tradition/Folklore/Legend"

Uchi-chan: "Inner," which is Sakura's doting nickname to her Inner Will

Youjutsu: Kage Hakobi (Dark Art: Shadow Stride): D-rank supplementary hijutsu; user is able to teleport through the Shadow Universe (created)

Soto-chan: "Outer," which is Inner Sakura's retaliatory moniker for the authentic Haruno

Kage Gen'ei: Shadow Phantom; an entity that resides from the World of Shadows

Raiton: Shinkei Douyou no Jutsu (Lightning Release: Nerve Disturbance Technique): D-rank offensive/supplementary close-range ninjutsu; user shoots out a weak static charge to make the target's nerves to go haywire or render the target unconscious (created)

Suiton: Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu (Water Release: Water Clone Technique): C-rank supplementary ninjutsu: allows the user to create clones out of water; like the other solid clone techniques, the clones can be used to perform tasks the user is unable or unwilling to do at a limited range and will revert back to water when struck with enough critical blows (Narutopedia)

Doton Kage Bunshin (Earth Release Shadow Clone): B-rank offensive/defensive/supplementary ninjutsu; this technique creates a shadow clone made of mud of the user; since it is comprised of gooey mud, it can continue to mold and reform its original shape, unless it runs out of chakra, which it then turns to a pile of muck to hold an opponent in place (Narutopedia)

Suiton Kage Bunshin (Water Release Shadow Clone): B-rank offensive/defensive/supplementary ninjutsu; similar in model to the Doton Kage Bunshin (Earth Release Shadow Clone), this technique creates a solid copy of the user, but instead of the earth-element being integrated within the matrices of the doppelganger, it is filled with the water-element, instead; upon its destruction, this special-element clone bursts into a violent gush of water (semi-creation)

Kuroake: literally, "Black Dawn," and is the name of Sakura's special summoning pet/familiar

Youjutsu Kuchiyose: Kage Hinba (Dark Art Summoning: Shadow Mare): B-rank offensive/defensive/supplementary hijutsu; via special blood pact, the user summons a spirit familiar from the Shadow Universe; the animal can be dispelled by user's will alone or if the user is rendered unconscious; otherwise, it can last longer than most summoned monsters into battle (created)

Suiton: Karyuu no Jutsu (Water Release: Swirling Current Technique): High C-rank close- to mid-range ninjutsu; user blasts the foe with a spiraling water cannon that carries with it the power of a locomotive; this jutsu can be created around a water source or from the user's mouth, if need be (created)

Suiton: Kyuusui no Jutsu (Water Release: Water Absorption Technique): D-rank supplementary ninjutsu; user drains fresh groundwater from the earth, water from a local body of water, or water vapor in the atmosphere; useful for finding water sources when on prolonged trips or for fueling other Suiton ninjutsu (created)

Doton: Daichi Kobu no Jutsu (Earth Release: Vast Land Swelling Technique): Low C-rank offensive close- to mid-range ninjutsu; with the aid of earth-based chakra, the user can "move" the earth in any direction at will to simply block or strike an opponent (created)

Doton: Gansou no Jutsu (Earth Release: Rock Formation Technique): Mid C-rank defensive close-range ninjutsu; user creates a dome of hardened earth to block incoming projectiles (created)

Doton: Doryuu Jouheki (Earth Release: Earth Flow Rampart): B-rank defensive short- to mid-range ninjutsu; this technique creates a giant parapet beneath the user's feet, by shaping the ground and increasing the amount of earth with chakra; depending on what the user imagines, the shape of the rampart can be anything from level ground to a steep, needle-like mountain; the user may need to force down his chakra consumption if he or she increases the volume of earth too much (Narutopedia)

Suiton: Takitsubo no Jutsu (Water Release: Waterfall Basin Technique): C-rank offensive/supplementary multiple-range ninjutsu; a technique which creates a waterfall by developing spring water in a place without water veins and manipulating the resulting water current to form a wave; since it drastically alters the environment, this technique can be used to hide the user's presence from the enemy through confusion; as long as the user continues to send in chakra to this jutsu, the width of the water source, waterfall, and basin can be expanded (Narutopedia)

Ninbyou: literally, "ninja cats" or "ninja felines"

Sora-ku: "Sky Ward"; the abandoned supply base where the near-extinct Uchiha clan stored munitions and equipment

Nekobaa: "Grandma Cat"

Kitsune no Hijutsu: Tama Tosshin (Vulpine Secret Technique: Spirit Rush): unknown rank close-range hijutsu for vulpine-class animals; user charges dead-ahead, encased in bright, crimson light; hits target about 85 percent of the time, due to its tunnel vision effect (created)