A/N: Thanks for all the reviews. For those of you who asked, there are many reasons why it took so long to update this story. Firstly my computer crashed, fizzled and popped. Second I could not get myself started again because laziness had kicked in. I also got a job so I have a lot less time than I used to, when I started this story I was just finishing my final exams and now I'm working full time. OK! On with the story!

Normal

"Talk"

Think

Technique/Inner Character

Demon Talk

Demon Think

I do not own Naruto or any Naruto characters, nor do I own any one-piece references or characters that are mentioned in this story. I do own any OC's displayed unless I say otherwise.

BEGIN

Uchiha Sasuke woke with a start; gulping and fearing the worst he felt his pants,

"SHIT!" they were damp and warm, the click of a camera made his head turn sharply towards source. Kiba stood there a huge grin in his face and a camera in his hands, looking past Kiba he saw Naruto holding an empty bottle of warm water, sniffing the bed sheets he sighed when it didn't smell like he thought it was. When Naruto and Kiba burst out laughing a terrible thought entered his mind,

"No one else knows that!' jumping out of bed clad in nothing but his 'under garments' he rushed outside chasing Naruto and Kiba. Unfortunately for him as soon as he had left the safety of his 'house' his worst nightmare became real. Naruto and Kiba had disappeared and in there place was a horde of fangirls.

Try to understand here; hormonal females surrounded Sasuke while he was wearing nothing but his soaking wet underpants. Twisting on one foot he tried to head back inside, only to find out he was surrounded. A hoard of excited screaming ensured, at the moment a lot of the girls were living their latest wet dream.

'A trap in a trap? How could Naruto come up with something like this?'

What Sasuke would never know is that the current mastermind behind the entire trap was smiling contently while Naruto and Kiba laughed their guts out.

"That was brilliant Shikamaru, we should do that again!" Naruto declared in enthusiasm, Kiba and Akamaru nodded viciously belong side him. The lazy going cloud gazing runaway replied by jumping to the top of the nearest building motioning for the rest to do the same,

"The views better here"

If one were to bother to look, they would have noticed that in the entire horde of hormonal females chasing Sasuke, Sakura was not among them. As the gigantic game of one-sided kiss/grope-chase was going on Sakura was in fact in a hidden training ground, one that belonged to her family. It had been unused for the last 3 generations, ending when her great grandfather handed the scroll for the families techniques to the first hokage so that they would be permitted into the village.

Sakura stood in complete silence feeling her chakra fill and strengthen her fists, they still hurt from then she had used them at the bridge but the pain was bearable. Rushing towards the nearest training post she punched it has hard as she could, her hand cracked again under the pressure but this time the training log was blown to splinters. Glancing around as she seated herself on the dirt she saw all the other posts she had abused, all of them were either unrepairable or missing. Wincing she caressed her wrist and pulling out a scroll from her bag she again followed the instructions and began to heal her wrists, where the heal jutsu scroll came from she doesn't know but it has been a huge help in helping her refine her punch technique.

Across the training ground Kakashi smiled while shifting into a more comfortable position in the tree, for him seeing her use the scroll he had provided filled him with hope.

'These guys are defiantly not your usual Genin, The healing technique Sakura is using is chuunin level. Uchiha's almost never received there sharingan until there were chuunins and Naruto's current taijutsu ability has been measured by Gai to be high chuunin level' Glancing upwards he saw a particular bird that could only mean one thing, the chuunin exam.

'Now things are going to be interesting'

Naruto still excited about his latest 'victory' over Sasuke grinned as he walked towards the ramen stand. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw a concealed box, there were giggling voices coming from it. Naruto developed a twitch, turning he yelled at the top of his voice,

"I THOUGHT I HAD TAUGHT YOU BETTER THAN THAT!" smoke popped and hid the 'rock' from view. Coughing followed along with a series of voices,

"I think you added to much smoke"

"Us? You're the one who added the smoke Konohamaru"

Naruto smiled at the 'Konoha-trio' they had become a great source of comic relief. Striking a pose the three children readied themselves to declare their identities. Luckily Naruto didn't want to hear the introductory-speech-of-declaration again.

"What is it now Konohamaru?" was Naruto's less than eager greeting, not to be deterred Konohamaru pointed a finger at Naruto and yelled demandingly,

"You're going to play Ninja with us!" Playing ninja was a game Naruto had taught the Konohamaru corps a few months ago. It involved Naruto creating a bunch Kagebunshin and having mock missions, this had a duel purpose: First it taught them what to do in various strange circumstances, such as the enemy villain trying to seduce you (curtesy of Naruto's first original jutsu) and secondly it was a progressing opponent. As they learnt so did the Kagebunshin, the common villains and allies were harder to beat each time. Udon had gotten to the point that he can put himself into a villain's mindset and pick apart there every move, it freaked them all out actually. Already the Konohamaru corps could be ranged as mid-Genin in overall strength and high-chuunin in teamwork and mission efficiency.

Today was going to be different though, as another person had heard Konohamaru's not so subtle command,

"A ninja playing ninja? How stupid!" Naruto turned his head in shock; turning to the person he blushed.

Sakura winced as she bandaged her hand, bandages which had hit her in the back of the head after she had run out of expendable chakra, groaning she committed herself to come back and train again tomorrow

"Great I'm beginning to sound like Lee" she muttered, walking towards her house she saw Sasuke hiding behind a tree. All signs of exhaustion gone she ran towards the obvious source of her affection,

"Sasuke-KUN! Do you want to have lunch with me?" the answer to her question was a glare and a barely audible 'no'. Sighing in defeat she again wondered towards the ruff direction of her house, only to meet a strange (in her eyes) sight. Konohamaru had just asked Naruto to play ninja with him, Sakura just had to nip this bud before it bloomed.

"A ninja playing ninja? How stupid!" Sakura watched amused as Naruto turned towards her and blushed, she waited for the usual torrent of stupid questions.

"Hey Sakura-chan! Why are you here? What do you mean a ninja playing ninja is stupid? Would you have rather learned how to do things properly before Kakashi-sensei and Gai-sensei worked us to the ground? And why do you looked bored?" before Naruto could complete his rant Sakura answered the answers as fast as she could with no emotion in her voice while Naruto was asking the questions. (AN: they are literally speaking at the same time)

"I'm bored, you're already a ninja, now that I think about it I would and because I am" the entire question and answer session was done so quickly and routinely the Konohamaru corps looked at them in amazement. Whispering among each other they formed their conspiracies

"Did you see that?"

"They must do that often!"

"Does Naruto really ask that many questions?"

"Why is her hair pink?"

"Ok, we have reached a decision they are obviously a couple!"

There conspiracy decided Konohamaru declared it to the world,

"Hey Naruto, is that your… special person?" holding out his pinkie he winked at the talking 'couple'. Both Naruto and Sakura's eyes widened, Sakura retaliated by yelling at the top of her voice

"NO!" Naruto himself muttered something else under his breath

"I wish" luckily for him Sakura was to busy hurting the hokage's grandson.

Once the evil deeds were done Sakura again turned to the shivering quadruple, Moegi was the one that disrupted her rain of terror,

"Why don't you play with us?" she asked in fear.

Sakura paused, seriously considering it. It would be a great brake from training, even if it were a Childs game.

"Fine, I will play with you" As if by magic all Signes of fear and hesitation disappeared. Konohamaru grinned, grabbing a wooden kunai he and the rest of the trio threw them at Naruto and Sakura. Once Sakura had successfully dodged the kunai she reached into her pouch for a counter attack, only to notice that Konohamaru and his friends were gone. Turning a questioning glance to Naruto she saw him shrug,

"Its like this all the time Sakura-chan" placing his hands in a seal he yelled out

"Kagebunshin no jutsu (Shadow clone technique)" several copies of Naruto appeared around him, saluting Sakura they each disappeared. The original motioned Sakura to sit down.

"There are some things we need to clear up first," Naruto told Sakura in all seriousness. Sakura was slightly surprised, wasn't this just a child's game? Naruto continued

"This is not just a Childs game, we replicate actual missions using my Kagebunshin. Konohamaru is going to be the hokage after me so I cant have him being stupid. A bonus is that I improve at the same time. I had Iruka measure them in skill once; they are as strong as genin. Already as a team they can only be beaten by a strong chuunin like Iruka, so don't be fooled" Sakura was extremely surprised now, this would be harder then she originally thought! A Kagebunshin landing beside Naruto interrupted her from her musings.

"Boss, we have trouble. Konohamaru caught the attention of an annoying sand-nin, if you don't hurry there could be bloodshed" Naruto jumped as the Kagebunshin dispelled himself,

"SHIT! Sakura we have to hurry, or we might be to late. If Konohamaru dies it could cause war"

Once they landed at the last known position of Konohamaru, a battle had obviously taken place. Scorch marks were on the walls with a mixture of wooden and actual kunai, it was the blood that worried them though. The clash of metal on metal from over the fence made them hurry; jumping over it they entered the battle.

Konohamaru ducked another strike from the puppet and began forming seals again, seeing sharp objects exiting the puppet and head towards his position he gasped and jumped just as Moegi threw several stolen kunai hitting the puppets own thrown weapons.

"Ichi no Kushi (1st Star)"

The puppet master jumped to the left as the fan-mistress let loose another rain of wind.

"Katon Goukakyuu no Jutsu (Grand Fireball technique) Konohamaru's attack met it strait on. They were facing against two sand-nin; one male and a female. Currently the battle was a draw, neither side apparently reaching an advantage. Although Udon wasn't stupid, he knew the sand-nin weren't really trying. The other two defended Udon as he attempted to come up with a winning strategy, smirking he readied his final technique… their final chance for victory. Fortunately they never needed to end the battle as Naruto and Sakura entered the field.

As they entered the fray, Naruto could not help but feel pride. His 'students' had done well.

"Boss! Were saved" Konohamaru sighed in relief. Naruto jumped in front of them facing the sand-nin, seeing Sakura begin to heal the corps injuries he spoke to the foreign shinobi.

"Unless you wont to start a war, I suggest you leave" The male sand-nin retaliated by bringing his puppet closer to himself, again prepared to attack. For some strange reason he really wanted to attack Konohamaru, the movement of sand though caused his attention to move. As a gourd wearing sand-nin appeared by sand driven teleportation jutsu Sasuke seemed to materialise right next to Naruto. The gourd man spoke first,

"Konoha ninja are strong, they will defiantly prove my existence. What are your names?" Sasuke being that he was answered first, for both of them

"Uchiha Sasuke, my team-mate is Uzumaki Naruto. You are?" the sandman licked his lips,

"Sabaku no Gaara, I will meet you in the chuunin exams. Kankuro, Temari we are leaving" the three then left.

After the shinobi left, Naruto and Sasuke relaxed. Turning they saw Sakura with three completely healed genin-level academy students,

"Eh? Sakura-chan you know how to use healing techniques?" Naruto asked in obvious surprise. Sakura smiled and showed Naruto the mysterious scroll.

As the sand-sibs walked away from the battle scene, Kankuro winced again. Curing the hokage's grandson as he caressed his damaged goods he turned to Gaara.

"What made you think the blond idiot was a threat? He had his hands in his pockets!" Gaara turned and stared at Kankuro, as if determining if Kankuro was actually important enough to answer.

"Not a threat, but will confirm my existence. As for my interest" pausing he reached into a pocket, pulling out a magazine he flicked through the pages. Reaching the one he wanted he delivered it by sand to his siblings (not that he thought them as such).

Catching the article Temari read it,

"Uzumaki Naruto, The chief of Konoha… what sort of name is that?" Kankuro replied,

"I think its pretty cool, let me see that" snatching the paper he looked at the front cover.

"Monthly Chief magazine, see who's who in the world of cooking. Look at the worlds finest chiefs from each village… WHAT ON EARTH IS THIS?"

Once Naruto and Sasuke had breezed though the medical scroll, Naruto nodded his head and handed it back to Sakura. Turning to Konohamaru he tried to get to the bottom of the fight,

"What was the fighting all about?" Moegi instantly replied,

"It was Konohamaru's fault" Konohamaru looked at Moegi in shock, turning to Naruto he gulped. Sakura then spoke,

"What happened?" Konohamaru then began the tale.

FLASHBACK

The Konohamaru corps ran at full speed away from Naruto and Sakura, they were going to have such a cool game of ninja…

END FLASHBACK

Sasuke looked at both Naruto and Sakura and smirked,

"Played ninja?" while Sakura stammered a reply Konohamaru's eye twitched then continued the story

FLASHBACK

Turing a corner he accidentally ran into a face painted sand-nin, not realising who it was he yelled,

"Get out of the way!"

END FLASHBACK

"First mistake, you yelled at an outsider and a ninja to get out of the way," Sakura scolded. Konohamaru mumbled under his breath

"You think I don't know that?" unfortunately Sakura heard him,

"WHAT WAS THAT!?" Konohamaru apologised and continued the story

FLASHBACK

Naturally the sand-nin didn't like that, so he lifted Konohamaru up of the ground and growled menacingly,

"What was that?" Konohamaru smirked and promptly kicked the sand-nin between the legs as hard as he could. In shock and pain the sand-nin dropped to the floor and…

END FLASHBACK

"YOU ATTACKED HIM?" Sakura and Naruto yelled in unison, Konohamaru yelled out in response

"I'M TELLING A STORY HERE, anyway he got back up fought us and then you came, the end"

Once Naruto and his teammates had left, the battered and bruised Konohamaru sat against the nearest wall and groaned. Not knowing what else to the Udon decided to have a 'spy' mission to cheer up Konohamaru

"Hey, you remember that guy with the gourd?" Moegi shuddered and Konohamaru nodded, Udon continued

"I think we should have a spy mission and find out as much about that guy as possible" Konohamaru then asked the question that was on both his and Moegi's mind,

"Why him?" Udon propped up against the wall next to Konohamaru and replied,

"We nearly lost against puppet-guy and wind-girl, the gourd-man just told them to follow them and they did. I want to know why" all injuries miraculously gone Konohamaru declared,

"Then we shall begin OPERATION GAARA OF THE DESERT"

Gaara walked towards the hotel reserved for the sand-nin, if he were to look behind himself he would have seen Udon using suction plugs climbing on the roof, Moegi using various camouflages to hide and Konohamaru under a very advanced henge; Operation Gaara of the Desert of under way. Turning a corner, just out of sight Gaara's voice could be heard

"Yes mum, I know your hungry. If I come across three young children, I will feed them to you. Yes I know you prefer virgins" Naturally the three were scared, they naturally didn't know what a virgin was but who cared! Coming to a silent agreement they decided to NOT get caught. Moving as silently as possible they edged towards the corner. Gaara suddenly appeared walking from the corner back towards the hotel, if they didn't do something soon they would be caught.

Gaara felt someone move, turning he saw… nothing. Staring blankly he just stood there, because of this he didn't see Konohamaru begin to sweat hiding behind a chair, Udon hiding behind the fence and Moegi almost screaming after getting pooped on by several birds as she was henged into the chair Konohamaru was hiding behind. After what seemed to be an eternity, he stopped staring and walked slowly towards his hotel.

Once Gaara was out of sight, the three dared to relax. Konohamaru motioned to the other two and as one they disappeared.

Shikamaru laid on the ground in his mindscape as his physical-self slept, he had a lot to think about lately.

"Usopp, if Asuma nominates my team for the chuunin exams do you with we will make it?" Usopp paused his tinkering and glanced in the direction of the 'firing-range'

"You might if you use that." Usopp eventually answered pointing towards the weapons at the firing range. Shikamaru glanced in the general directed

"Te, How troublesome"

On the other side of Konoha the last of the known Straw-hat spirit possessors glanced at her swords, thinking back to the time she first met 'him'.

FLASHBACK

Tenten stretched and glanced again at the swords her boss allowed her to keep, looking at them she grabbed one that was in a white sheath. Glancing at the name engraved on the scabbard 'Wado Ichimonji' it was a beautiful sword, picking it up she swung it slicing a training log in two. She turned to the three other swords, why three? Picking them up she shrugged and placed the white one in her mouth and opened the scroll. What she saw amazed her! A three-sword attack style!

Tenten had an unusual ability; she was a genius when it came to weapons. This was proof when she had mastered Kunai to an extent very few ever saw within a few weeks, using swords was no different. Within a few months she was confident enough to sign the blood pact, instantly she had blacked-out.

Once she had finally awakened she noticed she was not in the training grounds where she blacked out, She was in a dojo. Grabbing her swords and drew them closer to herself, a soft chuckle made her turn to the side. A man stood there holding the same three swords Tenten was holding, gulping she watched as he readied himself for attack.

"Do you have Onigiri?" When Tenten shook her head in the negative He struck fast and hard

"Oni Giri (Demon Slash)"Luckily training with Gai had its uses and she managed to barely avoid the attack, strengthening the grip on the swords she used the first attack she had 'mastered' on the scroll

"Oni Giri (Demon Slash)" The result though was different then what she had grown used to; a single sword had stopped Her attack. Smirking the green haired swordsman pushed Tenten causing her to fall to the ground, something clicked in Tenten's mind

"Your Roronoa Zolo, aren't you?"

"ZORO! RORONOA ZORO!" 'Zoro' yelled at the top of his voice, squeeking Tenten flinched. Unexpectedly this caused Zoro to move his head and humph,

"Get up and try again" It was then that Tenten realised she had gained another teacher.

END FLASHBACK

Roronoa Zoro, she never met a swordsman so strong

"Fe" The sound of Zoro's voice alerted Tenten to the fact that resting was over. Grabbing the swords she began training again.

It took a while, but Konohamaru and gang eventually found Gaara again. This time he was meditating in the middle of a training ground. All three of them, carefully hidden watched to see what Gaara would do next. At first nothing of interest was happening, but all of a sudden Gaara's eyes opened and Sand erupted around him. Suddenly Suspicious the three academy students tensed ready to flee if they had to, the three mist-nins arrival in the training ground prevented them from running though; There curiosity was piped.

"Oh, look at this one lone little sand-nin in the middle of no-were" the tallest one spoke, the fattest one took over

"Why, we could remove him and no-one would ever know" The last Nin flexed his muscles and then all three of them charged.

It was not a battle; it was a slaughter. Instead of fist on flesh like they had expected, the hands and ankles contacted hard sand. The sand captured the limbs and spread itself all over their bodies. Holding out his hand Gaara spoke 2 words that would haunt the Konohamaru-corps until they had killed another themselves.

"Sabaku Kyuu (Desert Coffin)"

As soon as the deed was done all three of the Konohamaru-corps had fled the scene, they were to find Naruto.

The object of their search was currently laughing and having a great time with his teammates.

"Neh, Sakura-chan?" Sakura sighed and replied to the obvious question

"I don't know Naruto, I hope he will" Sasuke nodded and entered his own two yen in

"It would be a good test of strength" What were they talking about? Obviously it was if Kakashi would enter them into the chuunin exam. Naruto nodded in agreement and padded his belly while looking at his completed ramen bowl. To be honest, Naruto wanted to fight Lee more than Sasuke. Lee was the only genin who matched him in speed, possibly even exceeded him.

In a mysterious Training ground of undisclosed location, a bowl cut - big eye browed - green spandex wearing - chakra less-ninja was training when he sneezed,

"Gai-Sensei, I thought you said that my fiery-passion of youth would make me avoid the un-youthful event of a cold!" As if my magic, the teacher (who was a carbon copy of the student, or was it the other way around?) appeared. Hugging the student Gai began to speak,

"Your fiery passion of youth is stronger than any un-youthful cold, my young student. You have much to learn about the way of youth, what has happened my beautiful student is that your spring-fountain of full fullness has impacted those un-youthful ones around you. Causing them to notice, observe and begin to realise that the power of youth is strong. For this was must run around the training ground 100 more times!"

"Naruto Ni-san!!!!" the distraught cried of three young academy students caused all three genin to turn in surprise.

"Gaara, Gaara he" Moegi began, only to break down in tears. Konohamaru placed a brave face and continued for her,

"Don't fight Gaara" Naruto snorted and asked

"Why?" it was Udon who explained the reason

"Gaara is a monster, he just killed three Mist Genin with-out blinking" The word monster struck a cord in Naruto, but it was drowned out in concern when they mentioned why they called him a monster. Sasuke though, he wanted to find out all he could.

"How?" It was Moegi that answered

"Sand, pure sand pressure" she then went and explained the 'mission' in detail. The sand-techniques caused an unexplainable reaction within Naruto.

"Shit, sand?" for some reason Sanji was concerned, Naruto would discover the reason later on the next day.

END

A/N: Hey! Sorry for the wait. Could you believe I had a writer's block writing this chapter? I could not find a way to have the Konohamaru-corps spy on Gaara without having them in mortal peril. If Gaara found them, he either would have ignored them or killed them. Most likely killed, and ignored the consequences. This caused some problems so what I had originally planned could not be obtained.

NEXT TIME: The Chuunin Exams begin!

Please Review and honesty is appreciated. Thanks, The great David