Drifting

by AlphaDelta1001

Naruto is many things; troublesome, wild, unpredictable, adventurous, untamable, unique. But there's a benefit to being wild and unpredictable; no one has the faintest idea what you're going to do next. NarutoHarem

6. Graduation Arc - From Great To Genin

NARUTO

Drifting

From Great to Genin

Two years later…

It was a lovely, warm summer day out in the woods, conditions that all of the animals and insects living in the forest could agree with as they went about their early morning routines. This sort of went double for one Shino Aburame as he too was out mingling with the common folk. Being a weekend day, the boy had decided to live it up by pursuing his favorite pastime; scouring Konoha's surrounding forests for the most diverse and exotic bug life he could find.

Whether to add them to his arsenal, his collection or to his research it was uncertain, but whatever the case was the young man was so intent in going about his business he was almost completely submerged in the serenity of his environment. Without any need for a log book for documentation, the boy in the high-collar jacket and sunglasses moved from trunk to trunk across the wide expanse of land checking every possible place his friends or targets could be hiding. As expected of someone of his discipline and character, he was incredibly thorough.

Brushing past a couple of branches, the young academy student spotted a golden cicada perched atop of a fallen log resting against a large oak. The song of the insect filled the air with a deafening hum, adding to the sounds of the forest and luring Shino to its position. Glasses flashing, the teen reached down to pick it, only for the insect to suddenly fly off when a cluster of twigs and leaves fell around it.

Blinking, Shino looked up.

In the brush of the tree above, silhouetted against the sunny sky peaking through the canopy, the Aburame spotted a series of small figures leaping and swinging through the upper branches. The teen raised an eyebrow at the commotion of creatures dashing across the heights, which he quickly identified as a family of Gibbons.

It was a common sight; nothing out of the ordinary and nothing to get too excited about. But when an even larger figure darting in amongst the group rushed past Shino's point of view the boy recoiled a little and followed the group of monkeys more intently.

The larger animal was so damn quick he barely had any time to identify it.

"That's no monkey," Shino murmured to himself. "How do I know? Because monkeys don't wear orange…"

It was a fact he and many others knew all too well.

The massive beast leaping through the vines and treetops like he was flying, was wearing an orange jacket with a hood pulled over his head and short, blue sleeves with orange arrow marks on either side pointing forwards. He also wore a pair of orange cargo shorts that stopped at his knees, blue sandals, and a pair of goggles slapped over his eyes for protection. Furthermore, to accompany the massive grin that he wore, his short, blonde spiky hair waved in the wind as he tore past the family of Gibbons he was playing with and ascended the canopy at high speed.

Shino continued to follow the strange figure with his eyes till the young man was gone from sight, moments before the Aburame returned to his task and once again went about foraging for insects.

He didn't need a photo lineup to know who that person was and neither did anybody else who knew that person.

Jumping from branch to branch, making tight corners, impossible climbs and long strides through the canopy, the boy in orange eventually reached the tallest tree in that neck of the woods, which was situated at the top of a very large hill. With fleetness only a wild animal could possess, he clambered up the tree till he arrived at the very tip, allowing him a clear view of his surroundings. The chattering gibbons that had been pursuing him arrived seconds later, crowding around the branches beneath the winner and looking up at him as if he were the big boss himself.

"Ha! Looks like I win again!" Naruto exclaimed, pulling the goggles from his eyes and pushing them up to his forehead. He grinned down at the family of monkeys beneath him. "Sorry fellas. Better luck next time."

The family fussed for a bit, yet maintained their positions and gazed up at him attentively. With his dominance established, the jinchuriki then turned his gaze back toward his village further out, where his eyes fell upon the Hokage Monument situated in the distance and the mountain like cloud towering over the horizon beyond it.

His admiring gaze locked onto the tranquil scenery of his home at peace, capturing his attention long enough to allow two swallows, one with a familiar red kunai mark on their back, to fly circles around him before landing on his right shoulder. Naruto folded his arms for comfort and sat himself on top of the crown as a gentle breeze caressed him, a healthy sigh escaping his lips.

"It's almost here," he spoke in a low yet excited tone of voice. His eyes shimmered with anticipation. "The day that I finally become a Genin is nearly here." Curling his fist, he filled it with all the confidence and heart he could muster before jabbing it towards the four faces of the mountain far in front of his reach. "Look out world; Uzumaki Naruto is coming to get you!"

OOO

The academy…

Mid-day…

The sound of the school bell signaling the start of lunch rang out throughout the entire building, cutting Iruka's lesson short and breaking everyone out of their emotionless trances. Before the scuffle for the door could commence however, the chief homeroom instructor, determined to finish on a point where he could easily retrace his steps afterwards, clicked his fingers so that he could get everyone's attention and, by extension, kept them from leaving prematurely.

"So remember to study hard tonight for the written exam and that you're ready to take it by tomorrow morning. I expect each and every one of you to at least get a credit for it, so do your best," Iruka stated before dismissing them all with a wave. As kids began filing out one after the other, the man then turned to the middle row where he could see his most troublesome student fiddling with the brace on his wrist, as if waiting for everyone else to excuse themselves before he did. "Naruto! Could you stay back for a bit? I need to talk to you."

Interrupted from his task, the jinchuriki looked up with a start and quickly processed the question. "Oh. Sure thing, sensei."

The rest of the class left easily, save for Shikamaru who needed to be woken up by Choji to get his butt in gear and out of there. Once everyone was out, Naruto and Iruka approached each other on the classroom's ground floor, where the Chunin confronted the blonde haired student with a serious gaze in play and his hands on his hips. The jinchuriki meanwhile maintained his normally collected expression and gazed up at the man curiously, yet remained indifferent towards the overall atmosphere surrounding him.

The blonde scratched his ear when his instructor finally spoke. "So… it's been two years. I believe we have some unfinished business we need to take care of before we move into your finals. You remember the agreement we made back in the woods regarding your Bunshin no Jutsu assessment, don't you?"

With the reason for his prolonged stay now out on the floor, Naruto grinned and nodded his head affirmatively. "The one we made about me learning a different technique to make up for the Bunshin no Jutsu if I'm unable to get it working in time? Yeah. Of course I remember that. I've been on it almost every single day for the past two years, sensei." The blonde stepped back and pressed his fists into his waist, sticking his chest out and looking incredibly pleased. "Believe it."

"Oh? So you've actually managed to find a jutsu that you can use?" Iruka exclaimed, looking the grinning child over once before fixing him with a curious gaze. "What is it exactly? It better not be something useless like that ridiculous Oiroke no Jutsu you pulled on me two weeks ago." Honestly, that was a shock he did not want to relive lest his dignity be dragged further through the mud in front of his entire class again.

"What? The Sexy no Jutsu isn't useless!" Naruto shouted in outrage, quickly forming the hand seal necessary to execute it. "It's my Sunday Punch and one of the greatest weapons in my arsenal! Want another demonstration?"

Before he could start gathering chakra his teacher grabbed his hand and pulled it away from the other with haste, disrupting his performance.

"Please don't," Iruka replied quickly, feeling immediate relief wash over him at stopping yet another embarrassing fiasco from taking place. When the blonde's hands dropped to his sides dejectedly, the Chunin continued. Despite how shameful and underhanded the Oiroke no Jutsu was, as a shinobi Iruka couldn't condemn it entirely. After all, the kid worked hard on it and, for the most part, it at least got results. "Okay… it's not entirely useless… I guess. It's effective, but only against a certain… uhh… target demographic." Naruto's expression brightened at hearing that, but Iruka wasn't done yet. "Just try not to use it too often when you're out and about. A jutsu like that can do you more harm than good if used excessively."

"What? Oh… but sensei…" the jinchuriki exclaimed but was cut short when he saw the seriousness appear on his teacher's face. After which Naruto huffed and folded his arms in resignation, "Fine." Though he agreed to it verbally, it didn't mean his heart had to be in it. "Come on. I spent hours trying to think up a good use for the Henge no Jutsu and Iruka-sensei says it stinks. The Sexy no Jutsu works great." No. It didn't just work great; it worked brilliantly. Why didn't he or anybody else see that?

Probably because his sensei and every single person in this village were prudes. That was perhaps the most logical explanation he could come up with, but Naruto made sure to keep this observation solely to himself.

"Anyway… about the actual jutsu you came up with," Iruka continued, getting them back on track. "Did you come up with it yourself from the material you learned at the academy or did you find it in one of the archive scrolls?"

Naruto snapped back into it quickly and smirked up at him. "It's a new one. I came up with it myself."

"Yourself?"

"Or… by accident. It was a really weird day for me," the jinchuriki replied with a distant wave of his hand. "An explosion happened, I was thrown into a wall, I heard a voice, Hokage-jiji broke into my house… it was a real mess. Seriously. I spent hours just trying to fix up my bathroom."

Iruka chuckled in amusement. "I'll bet you did." Man, Naruto had to have the most interesting day-to-day life out of everybody else in Konohagakure.

"I gave it an awesome name and everything," Naruto quickly informed with a shrug, feeling a renewed sense of confidence overcome him for that achievement. "And like I said, I've been practicing with it a lot so that I could get better control over it and see what else I could come up with."

"And? How's it working out for you? Is it coming along well?"

"It's getting there… though I still need a bit more time to master it. I've got tons of ideas that I'm experimenting with and you wouldn't believe some of the plans I already have written down. They're awesome. I can really put them to good use if I'm able to push them forward." This was a good thing, since it showed he was actually taking his education and training as a shinobi seriously. He was committing himself to getting something right, something that could help him when out on the field and needed some extra leverage when push came to shove. Iruka's expression warmed up at this information and he returned his student's words with an approving nod.

"Alright then," the Chunin exclaimed before gesturing towards the door. "Let's take this out onto the fields. You can show me what this original technique of yours is and I'll assess you on it. I need to determine for myself whether it is a genuine, working jutsu that is both practical and functional. Hope you're ready."

"I'm as ready as I'll ever be, Iruka-sensei," Naruto replied with a smile, jabbing himself in the chest. "I'll show you what the future Hokage of this village can do, dattebayo!" He then left the classroom in a run. His teacher, smiling in amusement, followed him shortly afterwards.

OOO

Naruto and Iruka arrived at the training fields on the edge of the academy grounds shortly there afterwards, and quickly began searching for an area where they could test the former's new jutsu out to its fullest. Since he didn't want to trash the place during an official assessment, the jinchuriki led his teacher towards the shuriken range, where posts had been lined up specifically for the practice of shurikenjutsu. The area was perfect for any long reaching techniques to be used to their best effect without stirring up a fuss in the surrounding neighborhood and it helped that they were currently empty.

It was lunch period after all and the only group of students present in the academy was Iruka's class. With exams coming up tomorrow, the other year levels had been given the day off so as to not interfere with the proceedings or unintentionally disrupt the graduation ceremonies. Their time would come later.

Iruka situated himself on the sidelines in the ideal observation position, watching for the next few minutes as his student fussed over the setup. For some strange reason the blonde began running all over the place and grabbing miscellaneous objects of all shapes and sizes, from training dummies to barrels, to even a massive boulder lying beside the fence. That sucker must have weighed a ton from the way Naruto lugged it over in his arms, but he eventually accomplished his task of foraging and stood behind all the items collected with a determined smile on his face.

While Naruto caught his breath, the Chunin raised an eyebrow and tapped his clipboard with the tip of his pen patiently. "So? Are you sure this is a genuine article?"

"Sure I'm sure!" Naruto replied, slapping his hands together and rubbing them enthusiastically. "I'm a man of my word, Iruka-sensei. When I say I'm going to get something done, I get it done, no matter how impossible it is."

The man smiled impishly. "And yet you're still unable to perform the Bunshin no Jutsu properly. Care to explain that little discrepancy?"

"Hey!" the blonde shouted while jabbing a finger in the shinobi's direction, "Me screwing up that technique over and over again is totally not my fault. I told you a thousand times before that that jutsu is bullshit!" The boy had made it quite clear to everyone in his class that his efforts in trying to create at least one, live clone for the past two years had been more than just a frustrating venture. This was evident from his frequent and often profound swearing and cursing over the academy's most basic requirements.

Iruka laughed while giving the boy the 'ease-up' gesture with both hands, "Okay, okay, sorry. That was a low blow." The man waited for Naruto to stop seething enough for him to clear his throat and go over the problem again, only with a little rewording. "That technique takes only a specific amount of chakra to execute correctly. My guess is because you have such an enormous amount of chakra that trying to perform the Bunshin no Jutsu is like trying to squeeze a single drop of water out of an entire ocean. It's just physically impossible for you to produce a working clone in that manner." This bit of information made the jinchuriki feel even more depressed, which Iruka hurriedly backtracked on so that his student didn't skulk off again. "But don't lose hope! I'm sure you'll be able to find some way to make use of your situation!"

Naruto sighed. "It's cool, Iruka-sensei… I'm already used to disappointment in that area…"

Seeing rainclouds begin to form over the distraught child's head, Iruka took action. Tugging on the collar of his vest, the Chunin decided to move forward with the supplementary examination of his student's abilities so that he could let the boy off to enjoy his lunch break in peace.

"Alright, how about this Naruto; after you get through this test and school's out for the day, I'll treat you to… three bowls of miso ramen for dinner. How does that sound?" Iruka asked hopefully.

Like a Jack-in-the-box, Naruto's head shot back up with stars in his eyes, the glow of which dispersed the proverbial storm clouds hovering over him. "Really? Three?"

"Yes. Really."

"YATTA!" Naruto shouted, jumping in the air and punching the sky. Upon landing, he then stood directly behind the training dummy he'd lined up alongside the other materials, and retook his stance. "Alright sensei, step back and prepare to be amazed. You won't want to miss a single second of this."

"I'm on the edge of my seat, Naruto," Iruka chuckled, though his expression and position didn't exactly show this. Let's just say he was as eager as he possibly could be without losing his composure. He was upright and proper, and that was good enough for him. Clicking his pen, the Chunin prepared for assessment. "Okay. You can start whenever you're ready."

Naruto didn't need the whistle to be blown twice.

With his target set and his teacher standing a safe distance away, the jinchuriki began to skip rapidly on the spot. Upon loosening up and ensuring he had a strong enough base to launch himself from, Naruto went for it. He exploded from his spot in a blur, right hand cocked back before sending it forward in a palm strike straight into his target's chest.

"Jet Hand!"

Iruka wasn't prepared for what he saw next…

The second Naruto made contact, a blast of wind erupted from the point of impact that sent the training dummy spiraling through the air like a bullet down the range and into the end post. It took only a second for it to reach the trunk and the moment it hit, the mannequin exploded in a shower of splinters. In the end, all that was left of it was an empty flower bag with a ruined target symbol slapped across its front.

Other than that, there was really nothing else that could distinguish it as a training dummy any longer. All of the hay had scattered on the wind and its frame had disintegrated.

Still in an unloading position, the moment the dust settled Naruto slid out of his stance and looked back at his teacher with a grin. "How was that, sensei?"

On his side, Iruka was, in a word, flabbergasted. With a deer-caught-in-the-headlights expression and his mouth slightly ajar, the man was lucky enough to be able to catch his pen when it suddenly dropped from his hand before scribbling notes furiously onto his pad. After which he then glanced back up at his student.

Not even his actions or attempts to look professional could hide his shock.

"What kind of jutsu was that?"

"It's a Wind Release technique that I call Jet Hand," Naruto replied, holding up his right and flexing his fingers. "By placing my hand against any surface I come into contact with I'm able to create an ejection point for high volumes of air. The air blasts out of the affected area at high speed like a vacuum with enough power to send objects flying like they have rockets attached to them. At first I needed to use hand seals to use the technique until six months ago… now I don't."

"Th-That's… really impressive Naruto," Iruka murmured, jotting down notes as the boy explained to him the mechanics of the jutsu. "How in the world did you come up with it? I've never seen or even heard of a technique like this before, and I'm supposed to be good at this stuff."

Most jutsu associated with that affinity were expelled from the mouth, used in conjunction with weapons or, in even more uncommon cases, generated from the body. On top of being a rare element, what Naruto did was take the general concept of air circulation, brute force and precise cutting technicalities of the affinity and created a technique that could function as a highly effective offensive weapon he could use at his convenience. It was sharp, short and simple, something he would expect the boy to use but not something he'd ever seen before.

Since when could someone attach chakra to an object with the touch of their hand so easily and generate that much power with it?

A jutsu of that level must take an exponential amount of energy to use from the amount of force that was behind it. This was definitely something Naruto could work with, no doubt.

"You can use it freely?" Iruka asked.

"Yeah! And not only that, I can use it repeatedly," Naruto said. He illustrated this point by walking passed the barrel, the log and the trash can he had also lined up and slapped his hand against them one after the other. With every touch, the object he brushed was sent spiraling down the field to the other end and, just like the training dummy before them, was either utterly destroyed or damaged beyond recognition. Naruto threw his hands out after showcasing his masterpiece to his teacher. "Cool huh? I'm not even tired."

"Well… that's no surprise. Your chakra is monstrous, kid," Iruka mused to himself before writing more down, making sure to keep his facts brief so as to limit the technique's exposure. Something like this… details on it needed to be kept to a minimum for the benefit of the user but at the same time needed to inform any third party candidates should issues arise from this jutsu's usage. Because it was something Iruka hadn't seen before, he needed to be careful with what he wrote down. "So… what do you think you will be able to accomplish with this? What kind of damage can this thing actually do?" Yes, the question he was absolutely dreading the answer towards, especially concerning the orange wearing menace of the streets.

Naruto scratched his chin while looking at his hand. "It does a ton of physical damage. I can rip trees out of the ground and stuff that weighs heaps with just one ejection point alone. Walls can also be ripped to pieces if they're standalone and I was even able to get an entire house to move several feet from its spot." This had the Chunin shake his head in disbelief, being unable to comprehend such a scenario. It was then the blonde looked up at Iruka and dropped him the coup de grace of bombs. "I also know it can do some serious damage to people… and not just send them flying across a valley."

"How do you know that?" Yet another answer Iruka started sweating bullets over.

"The last person I fought with was a guy named Crow. I sent him packing with a full power Jet Hand and blasted his body into a concrete pillar. The barrier caved in on itself and I'm pretty sure if the guy wasn't so damn hardwearing he would have died right there."

"Crow?" Iruka murmured, trying to figure out where he'd heard that name before. It must have been on one of the low-profile sections of the Bingo Book since the name clearly wasn't anywhere near S-Rank; probably low B or mid C-Rank. It was somewhere in there, he was sure of it; Iruka just wasn't familiar enough with the name or the face that went along with it. But after giving it some thought the man then looked down to see Naruto march over to the boulder, which he then stood beside and waited patiently for a response. "Are you talking about the time when you were absent from class for two weeks?"

"Yes I am," Naruto smiled before turning to face the huge rock. He dropped into a stance and pulled his hands back. "But no matter how many times I tell you the story, you guys still don't believe me." He then slapped his hand across the face of the rock, launching it from its position and sending it at breakneck speed across the range.

Iruka and Naruto watched as it not only crashed into the target post, it ripped right through it, through the sand bags behind it, shattered the first concrete divider, took a chunk out of the top of the second and went straight through the wire fence. It bounced across the road a few times before carting to a complete stop against a reserve wall, astounding the teacher at the amount of brute force displayed by the versatile technique.

"Well… I sure as hell believe you now," Iruka breathed out, before looking back at his student to see Naruto grinning up at him. The positive response he saw from the kid then coaxed a smile of his own and, after jotting down the final details, pocketed the pen and arm-pressed his clipboard to his side. "Evaluation complete. You'll have your results handed back to you by tomorrow afternoon once all your exams are over and done with. I'll see you back in class, Naruto."

"What about the Bunshin no Jutsu test, Iruka-sensei?" Naruto asked curiously, seeing the man begin to saddle off but stop upon hearing his question. "Do I still have to take it?"

The Chunin shook his head and passed the boy a warm smile. "You don't have to if you don't want to. I'll allow you to sit it out, just as we agreed."

Naruto grinned and nodded boisterously.

With pleasantries and good wishes traded, the pair then went their separate ways to spend the rest of their lunch hours doing whatever they needed to do. While Iruka needed to get his paperwork done as well as arrange a crew to be brought in to fix up the shuriken range, Naruto had his own business to attend to. It was exam day tomorrow, so he had to be as physically and mentally prepared for it as he could make himself in time to sit through the onslaught of tests.

It was going to be one hell of a ride.

However, unknown to both the teacher and the student, the two of them failed to notice the shadow of a hawk watching over them from atop the nearby roof. With his white hair waving in the wind, Mizuki glared down at the school grounds beneath him with a big frown on his face as he saw Naruto dash off to rejoin his classmates. After seeing him disappear round the corner, the Chunin rubbed his chin worryingly before standing up to full height.

"Damn you Iruka; warming up to that demon brat. Guess I'm going to have to get my own hands dirty in this one if I'm going to come out of this clean…"

He needed to rethink his strategy; one that would be able to kill two birds with one stone while excluding himself from the equation long enough to make a breakaway from this travesty of a shinobi village. The question though was… how?

OOO

That afternoon…

Naruto slipped away with a quick weight-shifting dodge to avoid the palm strike thrown by his opponent Tayuya, who managed to swivel around to face him again when he dashed around her at high speed in full reverse. Though the space in the clearing of the woods they were using for their sparring session didn't provide much room for excessive movement, the jinchuriki was using it surprisingly well much to the chagrin of his partner.

"God damn it! Now I know how everyone else feels when they rush in to try and hit you!" Tayuya shouted, dripping sweat as she tried to run after the boy, only for him to shuffle on the spot before suddenly zipping off to her left and out of reach. "Hold still!"

"If you want to get into a hitting match with me I'll be more than happy to give you one, Tayuya-chan. But I don't think you'll like it as much as the thing we've got going now," Naruto exclaimed cheekily, allowing the girl to run in and uncork a flurry of her best attacks on him. He ducked and weaved around every single one of her punches and kicks, giving her a good workout before swaying back when she came in with a spinning back-kick. "Whoa! You're actually doing really well today."

"Like hell I am! I haven't even hit you once, while you could have hit me over a dozen times by now!"

"Three dozen, actually," Naruto replied with a playful grin.

"Whatever you smartass bastard! Get back here!" Tayuya shouted again, throwing a few jabs, only for her opponent to weave through them. "DAMN IT!"

Ever since Tayuya came to Konoha and made her bed next to Naruto's, the pair of them rarely spent any of their off time apart. Though few people outside of them and the Hokage knew about the newcomer, of all the people their age they could be spending their days with, the two shinobi in training spent nearly all of their available hours together. When not hanging out at the apartment and just crashing, they were going out for long walks, running around the village, shopping, eating, going to fairs and all manner of casual fun.

Almost a week after being instated into the shinobi training program, Tayuya had managed to bag an apprenticeship under a woman named Mitarashi Anko, whose personality strangely mirrored Naruto's in a really creepy kind of way. Though the training got off to a rocky start, in which both kids were scared the shit out of by the crazy kunoichi in her first few days interacting with them, things started rolling much smoother after the introductory sessions. Thanks to the woman's 'delicate' touch and her student's willingness to learn, Tayuya's progress to becoming a fully-fledged ninja alongside her friend was coming along nicely.

She was making good ground.

To help her along and to trim out any rough edges in their development, the pair often trained with each other. While training by oneself was good at times, it was even better when you had a second there to support you. Aside from basic theory, meditation and chakra control exercises, the duo also split their time between physical training and practicing their ninjutsu skills. They also sparred a lot, with today's session being one of the many occasions where both Naruto and Tayuya used their one-on-one conference with each other to its utmost.

Though it seemed like a one-sided bout from a distance, it was doing wonders for their senses and reflexes.

After a few more exchanges, Naruto raised a hand and stopped Tayuya hard in her tracks, ending their fight in a cloud of dust settling over the still grass.

Thanks to their full-on session, the red head was sweating from head to toe and looking incredibly rundown, as if she'd just finished a marathon across the entire country. Her Energizer powered opponent on the other was not only looking like he'd had the best day of his life, but was also wearing a wide smile and emitting an aura that she swore was lighting up their entire training area.

"That's enough for today. You did well."

"Th-Thanks…" Tayuya breathed exhaustedly.

"Man. You've gotten heaps strong since the last time we sparred. Anko-sensei must really be putting you through your paces."

The musician gasped and straightened up, running her hand through her long, untamed hair that she allowed to hang freely on the breeze. "How the hell are you able to move like that? I know I've seen you fight before and I know how you move from a distance, but…"

"It's different when you're up close and facing off against the real thing, huh?"

"Pretty much," Tayuya replied before scowling at him suspiciously. "It's hard to believe you learned most of your taijutsu skills from getting into fights with delinquents on the streets and hanging around with animals for most of your life. From the way you move and hit, you make it seem like you were trained by a master or something."

His speed was unreal, and his eyesight, sense of timing, flexibility and reflexes were just as unnatural. Not only that, but it seemed like he was getting better with every session.

"It's just a lot of training and hard work," Naruto replied casually while shrugging. "You'd be surprised at how much you can learn just from watching and mimicking what you see. I know how to fight and react from experience."

Tayuya giggled. "I doubt even your classmates would be able keep up with you when you get really serious."

"Don't be surprised. It's not like I'm going to use the same moves over and over again, right? That would be stupid," Naruto laughed, slipping both hands behind his head and grinning. "My opponents would be able to see where I go before I even get there and counter me if I tried to be too direct. Why do you think I choose to dodge most of the time? It saves energy and allows me to observe what my opponents are thinking first so I know how and where to attack them from when I need to, and build up my rhythm."

Tayuya blinked at him. "So… what you're saying is that it's all reflex? Your fighting style is no fighting style at all?"

"No set fighting style," Naruto corrected, reaching into his jacket pocket and pulling out his goggles, slapping them back around his head. "Basically I just visualize what other people have done and what my opponent could do, and improvise. In other words, I just use moves that I know will work in a fight. It's sort of like… freestyle."

"Freestyle?" Tayuya repeated, testing the word out a little before smiling. "So your taijutsu style is Freestyle taijutsu? That's pretty cool."

"Yup," Naruto nodded affirmatively, "Always different, always changing. That's how I fight."

The girl giggled and set herself in another stance, throwing out a random combination of shadow attacks. "Anko-sensei taught me her fighting style and how it worked. She's really good at hand-to-hand combat and she's not afraid to trade blows with her opponents when things get tough. I've seen her strength too. It's terrifying how much raw power she can actually muster."

"She's a Tokubetsu Jonin and a strong kunoichi. I'm just surprised they haven't made her a full Jonin yet," the jinchuriki commented, remembering her skills from previous encounters with the specialist. Not only was she quick and incredibly capable, she also knew how to throw dango sticks with terrifying accuracy.

Tayuya then looked back at him with a bit of disappointment in her gaze. "I used so many different combinations against you, even moves I just made up on the spot, but you dodged them like you knew that they were coming."

"The positions of your hands and feet give you away," Naruto said before shrugging. "I don't know. I just avoided them the way I did because I knew that was where your next attack was coming from."

What, did he possess some mild form of foresight or something? This boy was incredible. No matter what anybody tried he wasn't shaken or put off in the least. He just took every attack in stride and economically used his time in thinking up a method of countering.

Naruto wasn't just light on his feet and physically tough, he was also deceptively clever, sharp and intelligent, definitely an improvement from what he was two years ago. All of that book grinding had really helped him along in the areas where he was weakest. It brought a smile to Tayuya's face knowing that the person she wanted to walk alongside, the person that she could count on the most was so strong.

"It's like you see everything in slow motion," Tayuya exclaimed before placing her hands on her hips and leaning towards him knowingly. She raised a finger in warning, "But don't get too cocky. Some day I'm going to catch up to you, shithead, and when that happens we'll see who's going to take the top spot in this village."

Naruto laughed before gesturing towards the exit of the field. Already decided that they'd done enough, the two of them started walking out of the training area side-by-side, all the while looking across at the other with the utmost respect. "I'm always up for some healthy competition. Having you gunning for me would be a very interesting learning experience. Let's make the race to the crown fun and train even harder from now on, okay Tayuya-chan?"

"No problem."

They exited the forest and into the suburbs, where they were immediately met with the afternoon rush to get home. While walking through the streets, passing by the silhouettes of everyday villagers in the background, Tayuya couldn't help but quietly soak in more of her surroundings of what had since two years ago become her home. Seeing both the familiar and unfamiliar, she then looked back across at the jinchuriki and gazed at him fondly.

"Thank you so much, Naruto-kun."

"Hmm? What for?"

She stepped closer to him and wrapped her arms around his right, causing him to look down at her in surprise. "For letting me come with you when I had nowhere else to go. You knew nothing about me or who I was, yet you invited me into your home without hesitation and gave me a reason to keep on living… something good and wonderful. I can't imagine what my life would have been like if you hadn't come along when you did."

Tayuya closed her eyes and rubbed her cheek against his arm soothingly. "Thank you."

Puzzled at first, Naruto then quickly caught on to what she was saying and nodded with an equally warm gaze crossing his expression. "You're welcome, Tayuya-chan."

The girl smiled at him as they continued walking hand-in-hand. From the villagers' point of view, the pair looked like the perfect couple, like they were made to be with each other the way they were latched on to the other. The bright boy with blonde hair and wearing orange walking beside the girl dressed in a khaki battle top and black figure-hugging spandex pants, almost fitted together like yin and yang. No matter how you looked at it, they obviously cared about each other and weren't afraid to show it.

When they arrived at a junction, Tayuya pulled away and waved to the blonde before he could march off in the opposite direction. "I'll see you when you get back home, okay?"

"What about dinner?" Naruto asked. "You don't want to come with me?"

Tayuya grinned and pointed down the road. "There's a new teriyaki chicken and fried rice dish on the menu down at the bar that I want to try out, so I'm all good here. You can have your ramen with Iruka-sensei."

Smile forming, the boy nodded back. "Understood. Have fun," Naruto called, watching the girl run off before setting his own course down the other lane. As he moved on, the jinchuriki was unable to suppress the grin tugging at his lips. With his heart soaring the way it was right now, the task of removing this smile was made even more impossible. "We'll both be Genin tomorrow. Both of us. Man, I can't wait!"

It was going to be a restless night, no question.

XXX

Later that evening…

Konoha's jail…

While it is true criminals of the shinobi world hanging around the area of the Land of Fire were normally sent to the Konoha Strict Correctional Facility or the international prison of Hozukijo located in Kusagakure, it should be noted that there are a few exceptions to the rule. The village of Konohagakure had facilities of its own close at hand for dealing with the abovementioned offenders, whom would be confined to quarters of varying levels depending on the severity of their crimes. While murderers and law breakers of the same class were given the usual treatment, rogue ninja and shinobi who have broken the laws were given different privileges.

To put it simply, those shinobi from other villages or missing nin that were captured inside of Konohagakure's borders were confined to one of the lower levels of the Leaf's temporary holding facility for interrogation. The location of this facility is known only to Konohagakure shinobi of Chunin level and above, so if anybody wanted to make any appointments or visits to criminals before any processing dates, they had to see shinobi of a high enough rank to approve a visit. Chunin and Jonin on the other hand could come and go as they pleased on the clock, including ANBU, though their visits were strictly off record for obvious reasons.

A lot of criminals came and went through here, save for one or two special cases. One of these cases in particular just happened to be the focus of a rare visitor to the establishment; Mizuki of the ninja academy. At his behest, the man entered the facility to one of the lower levels reserved for rogue ninja. With only two cells registered as occupied, he looked for the one at the very end of the hallway.

There, sitting or lying wherever they were on the other side of the bars, were three very familiar kunoichi. Dressed in blue prison uniforms with seals slapped over the walls and gates, the girls were doing whatever they could to occupy themselves. While two were playing cards in the middle of the room, one of them was lying across her bed reading a book. From their current states, they looked like they hadn't bathed in months, and appeared quite exhausted from whatever inquiries, physical and verbal, they had to go through.

For the most part though, they looked fine.

"What the hell do you want?" the silver haired leader of the three asked from her bunk, not even bothering to tear her eyes away from her novel for even a second. "Is it lights out already?"

Her teammates glanced over to see Mizuki looking in with a smug smile on his face. Wearing his bandana with his village's emblem inscribed clearly on the forehead protector, he looked even more sinister adorned in that piece then he normally would without it and gave the trio of kunoichi a quick fly over.

"You all look like shit," the man pointed out in clear amusement. "The services in this hotel must be pretty shocking."

"Ha-ha," the woman mumbled back dryly. "Don't you have anything better to do like filing paperwork or something? Piss off."

"Yeah," the kunoichi with the long brown hair snapped as well.

"Beat it, Konoha scum. We don't need your pity," her shorter haired companion followed up.

"My, my," Mizuki said with an even wider grin. "Why so negative?"

"You know damn well why," the team leader said again without even turning to face the snake in their midst. "If you expect us to smile and be cheerful after all the shit we had to go through, you can cram whatever words you have to say to us up your ass and leave now."

"Well… that's an awfully blunt thing to say to the guy who's going to bust you three out of here," Mizuki exclaimed. His words immediately earned him an eyeballing from the kunoichi leader on the bed and dead silence from her companions. Despite their hush, the two kunoichi playing cards dropped whatever they were holding and rose to their feet, an action that coaxed a smirk from the white haired man standing right outside their front door. "Oh… what's this? You want to listen to me now?"

The boss of the group frowned before looking back at her novel, "Dangling bait in front of us to try and get us to spill more secrets to you dirt bags? Forget it. I know a bluff call when I see one."

"This isn't some con to get you three to talk some more. I'm pretty sure you already gave them everything they wanted to hear. To be frank, I could care less about your business and personal interests. I've got my eyes set on a much bigger prize," Mizuki replied, stepping closer to the cell and getting the kunoichi behind it to glare at him even harder. "In fact, that's exactly why I'm here. I have a proposition for you girls that I'm sure you'll be most interested to hear."

The two compatriots looked over at their boss, whom they could see was still reading her novel in a disinterested manner. After a few seconds of silence though, she shut the article she was skimming but kept it level above her face. "Keep talking…"

Mizuki smirked. "There's an item sealed away in the Third Hokage's vault room that is of substantial value to me, something that possesses a great amount of secrets of the kinjutsu nature. I wish to acquire this item for myself and leave this village. But before I can get my hands on it, I'll first need to create a big enough distraction to draw the eyes of the Third away from his homestead, long enough to break in and out without anybody noticing."

The head kunoichi looked over at the Chunin carefully. "What's in it for us?"

"Your freedom and a portion of the secrets from the scroll in question once I've acquired it," Mizuki replied straight away. "In return I want you to set off explosives at the main entrance to make it look like the village is under attack and to draw all attention of the home forces to that area. You were able to bypass Konoha's defenses the first time you entered two years ago, correct? I'm sure with those same skills and with the Intel I can provide for you; you'll be able to do it again."

Sitting up in her bunk the silver haired kunoichi smirked across at the man. "From the look on your face you seem to have something else you wish to accomplish from this joint enterprise." She tilted her head at him curiously. "What else is involved with this grand scheme of yours?"

Mizuki chuckled. "As an added bonus, feel free to kill the little rat that put you three here in the first place." He thumbed at his chest. "As it turns out; I want him dead too, but for a completely different reason. I just think that the world would be much better off without him in it."

The two kunoichi standing stiffened at the mention of the blonde haired kid that had toyed with them all those years ago. With that proposition on the floor, the pair turned back to their leader for instruction, only to stop when they saw her smirking just as eagerly as the man offering them their freedom. Obviously, the entire squad had been thinking about revenge on the kid for quite some time, particularly after all the shit he'd put them through. Even though he was able to run circles around them in their first encounter, they had seen how he operated and had plenty of time to think about making up for lost opportunities, so to speak.

What this man was planning basically gave them a chance to accomplish two things at once; escape from this retched place and allow them to take their frustrations out on the kid who put them here two years ago. How could they possibly say no to that?

Mizuki held up his other hand, revealing a set of keys he'd managed to swipe from one of the guards on the way down to their cell. "So… what do you say? You help me and I help you find the rat. Deal?"

The leader stood up, with her teammates turning back to face the turncoat.

The girl with starlight in her hair grinned. "Let us out of here."

Mizuki gave a small laugh and twirled the keys on his finger, stepping forward to remove the seals on the bars. Just as he was grabbing the first strip, he turned to the prisoners. "I'm sorry; I don't think I ever caught the names of you lovely young ladies?"

The silver haired kunoichi smirked. "Noriko."

The brunette with long hair also smiled. "Kureha."

The one with the shorter cut folded her arms. "Shuko."

"Well then," Mizuki exclaimed, yanking the first of the tags from the gate. "Let's get started…"

XXX

Night…

Inside Ichiraku's…

"So… what other brilliant ideas were you able to come up with for your new jutsu, Naruto?" Iruka asked after slurping up a stray noodle that had been hanging from his lips. He pointed his chopsticks at the kid, who was still busy gobbling up his second serving. "You've obviously had it for quite a while now by how well you were able to execute it. With that crafty personality and unpredictable nature I'm sure you were able to imagine up some interesting concepts."

"You know that I can't tell you that, Iruka-sensei," Naruto stated while giving his teacher a tight glare. He kept on talking despite having his mouth full. "We're ninja, remember? We're supposed to keep stuff like this a secret. Besides, didn't we agree that the test was for one jutsu and one jutsu only?"

Iruka chuckled, scratching the side of his head. "Of course but… I'm just so curious about it now. After seeing you blast that boulder and training dummy across the field I just couldn't stop thinking about it. It's not every day a person discovers an entirely new jutsu no one has even heard of until it's actually used. Anything that appears new nowadays has either been developed from existing techniques or is derived from a kekkei genkai."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at that. "What the heck's a kekkei genkai again?" In response to his question, since his forehead was covered by his goggles, the boy instead received a flick to the nose. "Ow! Hey!"

"Think, Naruto. I touched on it in my lectures for the past two years and at the beginning of this semester," the Chunin stated with a frown. "Kekkei Genkai literally means 'a technique limited to inheritance by blood', which means abilities handed down genetically through specific clans."

"Oh yeah… that thing," Naruto exclaimed while rubbing his nose. "The weird jutsu like what the Hyuuga have with those eyes of theirs and what Sasuke is supposed to have… the Sharin-whatever."

"Sharingan, yes. But kekkei genkai aren't just limited to doejutsu. There are many others out there, even ones that haven't been discovered yet, that use all kinds of elements in one and possess interesting traits. Like abilities to manipulate lava, to create poison from the body, or an ability to absorb chakra. Stuff like that exists out there in the world and oftentimes are hard to come across," Iruka exclaimed before smiling at his student, propping his head up on his arm. "You don't have a kekkei genkai or anything like that, but you were able to come up with something as equally impressive. I think you should see your overwhelming level of stamina, imagination and chakra reserves as a blessing."

"Of course I do. Why do you think I'm able to keep smiling all the time? Because I'm able to beat everyone at anything involving long distance," Naruto grinned while poking the side of his head. "But these new ideas of mine… they're staying right up here in the safest place in the world."

Iruka smirked, "Alright then… if you say so." Before he could go back to his noodles though, he felt a tug on his sleeve and looked back to see Naruto leaning towards him. The boy gestured for the man to drop down a level, to which he then loaned him his ear. "What's up?"

Looking left and right, making sure Teuchi and Ayame were both occupied, Naruto then focused back on his teacher's ear with a mischievous grin. "If you really, really want to know what else I have planned… I'm learning how to fix up the timing," he whispered.

"Timing?"

"Yeah. Like a countdown for the technique to activate," Naruto said while looking exceptionally devious. "I want to catch my enemies off guard with a delayed attack. Doesn't that sound cool?"

Iruka considered the idea for a moment before letting out a laugh of his own, leaning back and readjusting the headband on his head. Even he had to admit that sounded like a swell plan, especially with the technique he'd seen. "It sounds awesome, Naruto. I can't wait to see where you go with it." With his student beaming up at him the man couldn't help but shake his head at the humor of the moment. "The little rascal; he just couldn't resist."

"I've got tons more ideas in the workshop," the jinchuriki added before downing the rest of his bowl in one go. He then beckoned for Ayame for a third, which the young waitress gladly obliged. "But I wonder what else I can do with Jet Hand besides using it to blow people away and to send stuff shooting off into the distance. Maybe I can get it to screw around with the air to mess with people's movements or something."

He made a note to take a peek at his science book for something with a little more 'bang' in it later. That sounded like a feasible way to help feed his creative genius.

Iruka chuckled before ruffling the kid's hair. "I'm sure you'll think of something else."

Grinning brightly, Naruto dove right on in to his last bowl for the evening. He wanted to get home as soon as he could so that he could hang out with Tayuya and work on some new material. There was a time for everything and he didn't intend on wasting a single second.

XXX

After an incredibly satisfying dinner with Iruka, Naruto then bade his teacher goodnight and headed on home as quick as he could. With his final exams coming up tomorrow he needed all the time he could muster to cram everything he needed to know before the assessment bells were rung. All he needed to do was make sure he had everything covered and while walking down the street back up to his apartment, compiled a list of all the tests he needed to pull through in order to get his headband.

"So let's see… I have the Kawarimi test, the Henge test, and the written exam," Naruto listed one after the other, a smile being brought to his face once more as he walked along. "And I don't need to do the Bunshin no Jutsu test anymore since I did that supplementary exam with Iruka-sensei today. Though I'm still bummed out that I can't even create one clone yet, I'm sort of alright with that." The exams were a long and arduous enough process for any kid to deal with already, so it was great that he didn't have a fourth point weighing him down. In the past few years Naruto had been at the academy he'd had end of year tests involving jutsu each and every time and for the last two he'd failed to produce a single working clone.

What? Was his chakra really that big that he couldn't pop out one little speck for the simplest supplementary move? Geez.

"I guess I can catch up on it another time," Naruto thought while stretching his arms. "I've got other tests to worry about. The Henge and Kawarimi I can put at the bottom of the list. All I need to concentrate on now is the written exam. Damn theory." Rubbing the back of his head, the blonde stopped in the middle of the road and looked across to his left to see the local convenience store in the area lit brightly for the awe of all passers in the area. The sight of the blaring neon lights then set off a different kind of light in his head, which had him snap his fingers in remembrance. "Oh, that's right. I need to restock my cupboards. Shop first then study…"

Two people living in the same place did have some give and take to it, but Naruto had no problems with that. Finding everything he needed in the one place he could always count on, the jinchuriki entered the store, grabbed what he needed, paid for it, and then started the quick march the rest of the way back to his apartment. When he arrived at his corner and looked up toward his apartment where he could clearly see his balcony and floor, he saw that the lights to his flat were on and smiled.

"Tayuya's back already? That's good to know," Naruto exclaimed before heading upstairs. Reaching the third floor, the blonde skillfully whipped out his keys despite having both hands occupied by bags of groceries and unlocked the entrance to his pad. Nudging himself in, he then shut the door with his foot and made his way into the lounge room where he figured his apartment buddy was sitting right now.

He stopped when he saw the television on and gave a puzzled blink when he saw no audience.

Looking around, he set the stuff down and walked in, placing his hands on his hips. "Tayuya-chan?" Scratching his head Naruto headed around the couch to look for the remote before hearing a scuffle over by the other door. He looked up towards the kitchen to see said girl dressed in a V-neck singlet and shorts come strolling out with cupped ramen in hand.

"Hey, Naruto-kun," the redhead exclaimed in greeting, stirring the contents with the pair of chopsticks provided. "Back already?"

"It was a quick dinner. Normally I'd have asked Teuchi-jiji and Ayame-neesan for way more, but I went easy on Iruka-sensei today," Naruto chuckled and rubbed the side of his head. "Three bowls of ramen is better than no bowls at all. That's what I always say."

The red haired flute player shook her head in amusement as she stepped a little further out from the kitchen before starting towards him slowly. "You're such a weirdo. Sometimes I find it hard to believe you're even human, Mr. Broth-for-brains." After stirring the noodles around, she then pulled up a clump of it and slurped it up, giving a satisfied murmur as her answer. "I take it from your stupid grin that you had an enjoyable dinner date?"

"Oh yeah. Iruka-sensei is always great to hang out with. He's like, one of the only guys in this village who's genuinely nice to me and doesn't look at me funny like all of the other adults," Naruto exclaimed with a good-natured laugh. "Even though he can be loud and scary sometimes, I really think Iruka is an awesome teacher."

Before he could open his mouth to continue telling the girl about his talk with his homeroom instructor, his radiant expression suddenly switched from delighted to puzzled when he saw Tayuya continue to slurp up noodles while striding towards him. Eyeing her movements carefully, he then sniffed the air a bit before a small frown crossed his lips, followed shortly by his eyes narrowing into an intense glare.

"You sound really attached to the guy," Tayuya giggled before picking up some vegetables. "Tell me more abou-" She glanced up at the sound of rushing footsteps before her stomach was unexpectedly hit with the force of a charging bull. Giving a strangled shout along with the heavy thud that filled the room; Tayuya was blasted off her feet and slammed into the far wall beside the balcony entrance of the apartment.

The plaster cracked and splintered at the force of the impact before the girl slumped to the floor, bits of residue sprinkling down on her.

"What the fuck?" the girl groaned before looking back up again through a pained face and blood running from the corner of her mouth. "Hey, shit-bag! What the hell was tha-" She stopped when she saw Naruto stop directly over her with a kunai drawn. "For?"

"Who are you?" Naruto hissed, his tone set on dangerous and face overshadowed by his hair, amplifying his already serious appearance several times.

"W-What are you talking about?" Tayuya said back, her own expression deepening. "It's me, you dumbass? Who else do you think it could be?"

Naruto then pointed his kunai straight down at the teen so that it was trained on the center of her face. "Tayuya-chan always eats ramen with her left hand, no matter where she is or who she's around. You're eating ramen with your right hand." The blonde then lowered his weapon. "That and you also smell much different from when the two of us were training together. I can sense your toxic odor above the cupped miso soup you stole from my cupboard."

Staring incredulously up at the boy, 'Tayuya' then gave a smirk and licked up the blood at the corner of her mouth. "My. You're a lot sharper than I remember. I'll give you points for picking up some extra brains over the past couple of years."

"Remember?" Naruto repeated before thrusting the knife further forward. "Talk! Who the hell are you?"

The red head slumped against the wall pulled her knee up to her chest and brushed her hair aside. "Maybe this will help jog your memory." She then burst into a puff of white smoke, the fumes dispersing seconds later to reveal a long, brown-haired woman wearing a familiar dark grey uniform. Naruto's eyes widened when he saw her form emerge fully from the sheath of her transformation. "Well? Ring any bells, sweetie."

"Y-You're?" Naruto choked before swinging his kunai around. Before he could follow-through with an attack however, the boy's eyes widened in horror when he suddenly felt a sharp sting shoot through his entire body from his right side. Mouth dropping and giving out a strangled yelp, the jinchuriki dropped the knife he was holding, the blade clattering loudly on the floor before he looked down to his ribs to see another kunai being driven into his side from an unknown attacker. "W-What the hell is this?"

Looking over his shoulder, half of his question was immediately answered by another familiar face popping into view in the form of the silver haired fox from his younger years. The lead kunoichi of the band of three that had infiltrated his village two years ago to steal information on Konoha's security system grinned slyly at the boy as she knelt behind him with her specialized, curved kunai buried into him.

She twisted the weapon for extra measure, earning another strangled shout from her still standing victim. Blood began seeping out of Naruto's mouth.

"Pay back," the silver haired kunoichi exclaimed, with the third member of the group appearing behind her with her hands on her hips and looking toward the child smugly. "Don't bother calling out for help, though I doubt anyone will be able to hear your cries of terror even if you tried. I've made sure to aim for your lung so that you wouldn't be able to even squeak. You'll bleed to death, but live long enough for us to enjoy this."

"I-It can't be? How are you three even here?" Naruto choked out as best as he could. His gravelly tone registered barely above a whisper thanks to the blade sitting inside of his organ. "I took you down ages ago. Y-You should be rotting in jail right now."

"Should be, could be, would be, but thanks to the little mole hiding out in your cozy little village our sentence has been cut short. Now that we're free to do as we please what better way to turn over a new leaf then by taking out all our years of pent-up frustration on the runt who put us in that hellhole," Noriko exclaimed. "You should be happy… although… not as happy as we'll be when we're through with you."

"That's not fair, Noriko," Shuko whined in disappointment. "I wanted to stab the kid in the back. Why do you get all the kill shots?"

"Because I'm the leader, that's why," Noriko replied before smiling over at her teammate. "But I'll let you break all of his fingers if that'll cheer you up?"

"Oh goodie," the kunoichi exclaimed with a clap.

Noriko chuckled before looking back at the jinchuriki, while their teammate pulled herself to her feet and placed a hand on her hip. They were all dressed in the same uniforms they had worn all those years ago with their swords strapped to their backs. This showed that they were all set and ready for action, but clearly wanted to take their time in wanting to cause the boy they now had at their mercy as much pain as they possibly could.

After all the humiliation he'd put them through in their first encounter, they wanted to make good on their promises to put him through double, even triple the pain he'd caused them.

"So, runt. Where were we?"

"W-What did you do with Tayuya-chan?" Naruto growled, biting his teeth together and shutting his eye as the pain continued to shoot through him. "You better not have hurt her, because if you did…"

"Oh? That little waste of skin?" Noriko chuckled before looking up at Kureha standing in front of them. "She's probably still wandering around the streets doing God-knows what at this time of night. Good thing we saw all those picture of you and her cluttering your nightstand for us to figure out you had a roommate, otherwise this wouldn't have worked out as well as it did."

"Yeah. She's quite the looker too," Kureha commented while rubbing her nose. "We didn't think you even had the sack or smarts to bag an item like that. Good on you."

"But don't worry about kissing her goodbye or anything like that. We'll make sure you're dead and bloodless by the time she gets home and discovers your lifeless corpse lying across the floorboards," Noriko said darkly, twisting the knife a little more. "How does that sound?"

"D-Damn it!" Naruto hissed through his lips.

Where the hell was Tayuya if not here?

OOO

Elsewhere…

The red head in question hummed pleasantly to herself as she sat at the local bar just a couple of blocks away from her apartment. True to her words earlier spoken to her dear flat mate, Tayuya was busy enjoying the new item the stand had on the menu tonight.

Teriyaki chicken with fried rice and a side of dumplings; it was exquisite.

It was so exquisite in fact that she'd decided to have four more dishes. Since they were each served small, as a lot of people loved them and it was good for business to leave customers wanting more, the redhead had gone on ahead and spoiled herself over a handful of servings, while making sure to order several as take-away for her to chow down on later and for Naruto to share with her.

Figuring that three bowls of ramen wouldn't be enough for her energetic teammate who needed more fuel to burn in a day than most, and because he did technically have a black hole for a stomach that was very much like hers when it came to delicious treats, Tayuya made sure to plan ahead. She needed meals to please the boy who was letting her stay in his apartment, so she loaded up with everything she could to go along with the other shopping she also needed to do tonight.

Tayuya noticed that they always ran low on milk. That was weird. How could two people burn through four liters in two days?

"It doesn't matter," Tayuya thought after that brief interlude and picked up another dumpling from the side of her plate. She held it in front of her lips, allowing its aroma to fill her nostrils with its intoxicating smells of oil and hot sauce. "Naruto-kun will probably do some shopping as well, but I'll do some extra just to make sure he didn't miss anything."

One thing was certain; Naruto was definitely going to be refilling his cupboards with more ramen. It was the one thing he couldn't live without.

Could you imagine Naruto going for an entire week without ramen? That's like a smoker going cold-turkey.

The thought of a pale, blonde haired jinchuriki lying in a fetal position on the couch while watching television together made Tayuya laugh.

"Yeah. There's no way in hell he'll ever let that happen to himself," the musician laughed before munching down the dumpling. "Man this is good." It was her last serving for the night. She wanted to make this one count.

Looking at the clock hanging over the chef's work area, she figured that Naruto was home by now and waiting for her. Hopefully he would be able to keep it together while waiting for her to return and not make a mess of the place in her absence.

OOO

Back at the apartment…

"You… sneaky… despicable…" Naruto began to curse but felt the knife dig in deeper, silencing him.

"Now that's not very nice. You shouldn't say things like that about your guests?" Noriko exclaimed, twisting the blade. Another strangled scream rang out throughout the apartment, sending shivers down the spines of all those present. "Oh, I'm sorry. Am I making you uncomfortable?"

"Actually…" Naruto panted, coughing up more blood before grinning down at the woman still kneeling behind him. "I've got a little cramp in my lower back. C-Could you massage it for me, babe?"

"Too bad," Noriko chuckled before burying the knife at an angle that made the child wince. "I don't usually deviate from my regular services for clients. That's gonna cost you something extra."

"Yeah? Well take your pick from anything you like," Naruto choked out while shakily looking around his apartment. "I've got a whole pile of crap in my bedroom. Take whatever you want."

"We don't give a shit about your stuff," Kureha snapped with a cocky smirk. "All we care about is getting even."

"Do you know all the messed-up shit we were put through after that bullshit fight you had with us two years ago?" Shuko asked with a little more irk in her tone. "After we were treated they sent us to the Interrogation Facility of the ANBU Black Ops to coax information about our group and whatever organization we were working for out of us. If the physical torture wasn't enough, the mental torture got us for sure. Hell, we don't even remember anything from when your Yamanaka guys tiptoed through our brains."

"You sure know how to entertain visitors in this village. There's no question about that," Noriko said to an intently listening Naruto, despite the fact he was probably in unbearable pain right now. "Though it's a shame we won't be able to put you through the same fun and games since you'll be losing all mobility in your body in a few minutes, we'll try to mimic the same material on you for however long you have left."

"Oh I just love surprises," Naruto choked with a cocky grin, "T-Tell me more."

"It was routine over the next year or so," Kureha spoke with distaste in her voice. "They interrogated us then shoved us into a cell somewhere underground and sealed us up for a month, then did the same things the next month. I don't know why they kept us there, but I guess we were just eventually forgotten and left there to rot. Though the quiet times were great and they gave us a few things to keep our sanity and health in check, it also left us plenty of time to think about the perfect way to get back at the person who put us there at the start."

"A lot of time to think and gain 'enlightenment', same as those jumped-up monks in the temples," Shuko said with a sigh and a shrug. "What can you do? It's karma. We did a lot of bad things in our lives and we were punished for it."

"But we served our time, paid for our misdeeds and now here we are," Kureha spoke up again with a reinvigorated smile, "Living it up after spending two years in the ass-end of the world. It feels good. And on that note, I think I owe you this from the last time we met." The woman marched forward and quickly buried her fist into Naruto's stomach. The boy hunched over her arm and spit up more blood, falling into a groaning and coughing fit. Kureha then backed up and shook her fist out. "I've wanted to do that for ages. Damn kid, you've got quite the six-pack on yah."

"Been working out," Naruto choked, looking back up with a pain stricken face. He then smirked. "Oh yeah… it's paid off."

Kureha chuckled forebodingly. "I'll give you this if nothing more… you're tough for a little spit fuck."

"Too bad all that skill and strength you've managed to build are gonna end up wasted," Noriko whispered with a shake of her head, bringing the boy back up to lean against her. "Such a shame. You should have just given us the kunai when we asked."

"If you still want it… it's in my room… on my nightstand," Naruto spat.

"Forget it. The information on the paper around it is long gone, so it's nothing more than a rusty old knife now," Noriko said with a frown, seconds before a smirk sprouted. "But at least we'll be leaving with a few more neat things under our belt and not just the updated Intel on your village's security system. There's a sweet deal waiting for us outside of this village, but thankfully we were able to sneak in this last little meeting with you before our exit from the stage. I guess it's curtain call, kid."

"J-Just one last thing before you go on and have your way with me," Naruto choked.

"I'm listening."

"W-Who was it that let you out?" the boy asked in an incredibly strained voice. "You mentioned a rat in our village? Who is it?"

"No one important. He's just a small fish swimming in a big pond. I doubt someone like that matters in a world like this and should matter even less to someone like you," Noriko replied, keeping her details short and to a minimum while at the same time failing to divulge anything of importance whatsoever. A classic triple-threat. "You're just a baby-faced academy student about to die. I think that fact alone speaks for itself."

"But shouldn't the dying… get one last request?"

"Depends on the request," Shuko said while folding her arms.

"Y-You said you had something else waiting for you when this whole thing was all over… th-that means you made a deal with this person?" Naruto asked, his words spacing as he was struggling to speak right now. His legs and arms were still shaking, showing that he was in incredible pain. This at least kept his hosts entertained. "What was involved with this deal b-besides me? He let you out… not just to free you so you could get back at me… he let you guys out for something else? Right?"

"Yes," Noriko nodded.

"What's the grand prize?" Naruto asked while gritting his teeth.

"You want spoilers?"

"Duh," Naruto coughed, at the same time seeing his attacker hesitate. "Come on… you're cold-blooded killers about to break me for good. Can't you give a dying kid one last hurrah?"

"That's our choice. I can just cut your throat now and be done with you, but Shuko still has to break your fingers," Noriko spoke back.

"Well, just so you don't leave this place with your souls completely torn apart from straight-up torturing and killing a baby-faced academy student and feeling proud about it," Naruto spoke again while shrugging off-handedly, "The very least you could do is give him this last little thing. Just this once. Come on." He whined childishly. "It's not like I'm gonna tell anyone. Plus I can't even scream, so there's your advantage with getting away with it."

Noriko gritted her teeth and glared back at the kid. After about half a minute of soul searching and looking into the puppy-dog eyes the blonde was able to send her despite the supposed excruciating situation he was in, the woman relented.

Just so her conscience wasn't scarred for life for doing this in the first place, she spilled the beans so to speak. "Fine. Last request. We made a deal with the Chunin who let us out to cause a distraction for him to steal the Scroll of Seals from the Hokage's mansion. He's waiting for that signal right now, but we won't give it to him until we set off the explosives we have hidden at the entrance to this village."

"So… you have some kind of firework show set up to make it look like the village is being attacked. You set them off, you distract the guard, your jail-breaker makes a grab for the Scroll of Seals, and then runs off when no one is looking," Naruto said while nodding, feigning an expression that he was impressed. "Sounds good."

"After that we're supposed to meet up with him out in the woods," Noriko said with a frown. "There's a way out through there that he's going to take to leave this village. We meet at the rendezvous point and finish the trade while Konoha's forces are still running around trying to figure out what the hell's going on. It's that simple."

"The guy also wanted us to snuff you out as a sort of added bonus to the whole gig," Kureha said while shrugging. "Personally, we have no problem with that."

"While instead of finishing one job, we kill two birds with one stone," Shuko exclaimed with a smirk. "Well… three. We get Intel, a portion of the Scroll of Seal's secrets and your blood."

"All in all, it's a damn good day," Noriko said while tightening her grip on the knife and driving it further into the kid's side.

"See? Now was that so hard?" Naruto asked while smiling at the woman kneeling behind him and peering over his shoulder. He sounded surprisingly chipper and back-to-his-usual-self for someone with a knife in his side. "Instead of killing your target swiftly you can kill him with theatrical style. I'm thinking of adding that to my repertoire when I finally get to go out to do big missions for my village. Saving damsels, assassinating criminals, helping people… man, I'm really looking forward to becoming a Jonin."

"Well good luck with that. I just hope that… hey! Hang on a second!" Realizing something was wrong, Noriko glared suspiciously at the boy now blankly staring at her from over his shoulder, "How come you're able to talk normally now?"

The boy tried to look confused. "Hmm? Whatever do you mean?"

The two kunoichi in the room also noticed his change from outright suffering to trading casual pleasantries. Wasn't he supposed to be in absolute agony right now?

Noriko then looked him up and down. "Second of all, why aren't you on the floor yet? You're bleeding internally and have a knife shoved into you. You should be half-passed dead right now."

"Oh that… well," Naruto grinned sheepishly at the woman. "Magician's secret."

Looking alarmed, the leader of the kunoichi then lifted up the boy's jacket to find out what the fuck was going on. When she did and had his mid-section exposed, she saw to her utter shock a thick body cast the same color as Naruto's skin wrapped around his waist. Acting like a protective vest, the cast prevented the knife from slipping into his ribs and into his lung. It merely redirected it and had the blade poking sideways.

"H-How? What?" Noriko looked up at her grinning victim in alarm.

How the hell did he know he was going to get stabbed? There was no way he could have seen this coming and acted against it! There was no way!

Their strategy was flawless.

Naruto, who still had 'blood' running down from his mouth, chuckled. "You fell for the fake 'waist line' trick." He then stuck out his tongue, where he revealed a packet of ketchup sitting and had been torn open with his teeth.

Noriko's eyes widened a split second before the jinchuriki suddenly and without warning dropped straight down and out of her hold. Back-flipping right off the floor, the blonde then rammed a knee straight into her startled face, the blow smashing into her nose and sending the kunoichi's body reeling back with blood flying from the offending orifice. While the silver haired kunoichi was recoiling, her partner Shuko rushed forward and drew her sword to slice at the still airborne Naruto.

While suspended in mid-attack, Naruto dropped a hand to the floor, pivoted on it and pushed off. Jumping even higher upside-down, he then spun a kick straight into the approaching woman's sword, the momentum allowing him to kick it out of her hand before slapping his against her side.

"Jet Hand!"

A loud whoosh blasted off of the shocked woman's side and sent her careening across the room to plow straight into the wall beside the television. The loud crack echoed throughout the entire apartment before her body dropped to the floor unconscious.

Landing in a crouched stance at the same time Noriko fell back onto the floor Naruto looked behind him to see Kureha charging at him with her sword thrusting downward. Before she even had the chance to finish swinging, her target leapt back off the ground and slid underneath her legs, appearing behind her when she stumbled forwards, missing her mark entirely.

When she turned to face him alongside the downed team leader, who was now holding her broken nose between her fingers, they saw the blonde crouched on the floor like a monkey grinning deviously before holding up a pink-laced bra and matching panties. He dangled them before the puzzled kunoichi teasingly. "Missing something?"

Recognizing the articles, Kureha squealed in fright, dropped her sword, held herself on the ground and crossed all her limbs. While blushing a brilliant shade of red, the woman glared furiously up at the boy, "YOU LITTLE PERVERT!"

Naruto laughed hysterically. "You would think that you girls would learn from the last time you met me."

Noriko glared hatefully across at the child while her friend crouched shivering on the ground next to her, muttering endlessly about how in the seven levels of hell the boy had managed to get his hands on her undergarments. "This is bad. He's gotten even faster and stronger since the last time we met, while we were all just sitting around and rotting in jail. Not only that, the fact that he's so small makes his speed even more ridiculous. What the hell is this boy?"

Shaking her head, the team leader glared at her partner. "Finish him and let's go!"

"What about Shuko?" Kureha asked.

"Take her! But deal with the rat first! He fights by avoiding a direct exchange and he's damn good at it, and we're on his turf!" The woman then hopped into a crouching position and rotated towards the window. "Do whatever you can then meet at the rendezvous point! I'll set off the explosives!" After receiving a nod from her still conscious partner the woman then leapt straight out the nearby window, not even bothering that it was closed and ruining another part of the apartment.

"Oh, no you don't!" Naruto shouted, tossing the underwear and rushing forward. He was quickly intercepted by Kureha who sliced at him with her katana, which he swayed under and leapt to the other side of her when she spun to meet him.

"You're not going anywhere you little shit!" she shouted, lunging at him with another slash.

Naruto ducked that and the follow-ups when she advanced on him as she tried to dice up his upper body. He kept swaying, bobbing and weaving under all of her strikes, before wordlessly grabbing a hold of one of her arms when it came back around and kicking off the floor. Using her momentum, the boy suddenly flipped up till he was literally hand-standing on her arm. As if he was viewing the world in slow motion, he saw her expression widen into shock.

"As long as I believe I can do something… nothing is impossible for me!" He flipped over her so that he started descending to the ground behind the woman. Kureha spun around to intercept, but he was already spinning his body like a top while upside-down in mid-fall, sending a kick flying for her head. "This is why I can keep fighting and win, even against you!"

His kick slammed across Kureha's face and had her spinning to the ground, which then allowed him to land as well. Naruto landed atop his solid floor the exact same time her body crashed into it.

Just as the woman struggled to her feet and backed away in a daze, Naruto lunged swiftly at her and slapped his hand against her stomach. A second Jet Hand propelled her off her feet and sent her crashing straight through his lounge room wall, across the street and into another apartment block through the closed window. She was unconscious the moment she was sent flying through his wall, so she was spared from the pain of land fall.

The brief spar between them showed just how much Naruto had improved over the years. However, he could also attribute his victory tonight because his opponents were also two years out of practice from being stuck in a jail cell the entire time, so it took some of the fun out of it.

Not forgetting that one of them got away, the boy ran over to the window and looked out, intent on following…

However, this plan was cut short when he looked down at the street below and saw a familiar face looking up at him.

"Tayuya-chan?!"

"What the hell was that, Naruto?" the red head shouted, pointing after the escaping woman.

It was crazy. She just saw a person leap out of their apartment, fly across the street, land on top of a telephone pole, and look down long enough for the musician to get a good shot of her face before disappearing across the rooftops.

"Gate crasher!" the jinchuriki shouted back and pointed after her. "She tried to knife me!"

Eyes widening, Tayuya dropped the shopping bags in her hands and immediately leapt up towards their building. Kicking off the wall, she sprang after the retreating figure. "I'm on it!" She was gone before Naruto could get another word in.

"She can handle her," Naruto thought before turning back towards his apartment and quickly walking towards the kitchen. "My best friend trained by me and a psychotic snake-lady up against a Chunin with Genin-level skills two years out of practice. Sounds like a fair fight."

He hurried back into the living room where he then proceeded to tie up Shuko, after which he hopped across the road, collected the unconscious Kureha, and brought her back to his place for the same treatment. Dusting his hands down like it were your everyday chore to tie up two kunoichi and have them propped up against your living room wall, he then knelt beside the one with the short brown hair and tossed a glass of water over her.

The woman was woken from her slumber with a startled yelp and, upon shaking off the shock of ice cold water dripping down her face, looked around wildly.

"W-W-What happened?" Shuko's answer came to her in the form of her hair being grabbed at the top and her head being forcibly turned towards the jinchuriki, who glared down at her.

"Talk! I want straight answers from you!" Naruto said in a surprisingly commanding voice, quite the opposite of his character. Being the most unpredictable knuckle-headed shinobi of the village however, he could make it work for him. He damn well pulled off the best close to dying act anyone had ever seen just several minutes ago so a tough guy act? Piece of cake. "Who broke you three out of jail? Who's after the Scroll of Seals?"

"W-Wha…"

He silenced her with a hard glare. "Answer me! Who told you where I lived? Who wanted you three to kill me?"

Finally realizing her situation and remembering where she was, the kunoichi with the short hair glared back at the boy firmly. "I'm not telling you jack all!"

Gritting his teeth, Naruto's head suddenly shot up when he heard a loud explosion and felt his entire building shake. Looking around, he quickly figured out that that was the signal the team's leader was instructed to set off to begin the theft operation and escape. With Tayuya hot on the perpetrator's trail he knew the signal-woman would be cut off soon enough, but he still needed to find out the identity of the mastermind behind this entire thing. Shaking his head, he turned his attention back Shuko.

"TALK!" He banged her head against the wall, not enough to knock her out but enough to rattle her brain. "You're captured! You're done! You failed! There's no need to keep anything from me anymore. The interrogators are bound to find out everything sooner or later, so spill it!" He banged her head again. "Who set you free?"

"Hmph," Shuko smirked. "You won't get anything out of me, brat. I've gone through shit worse than anything a nose-wiping little kid like you can think up for the past two years! I may be beaten but I still have my pride as a kunoichi. Do your worst."

Staring at her blankly for a moment, the blonde than gave her his most devious smirk. This devilish smile was then multiplied several times over by a shadow crossing over his eyes which became incredibly fox-like from how he was now leering at her. This had the kunoichi start sweating bullets instantly as his teeth slowly started to show fangs.

"You know, I can put you through even more humiliating stuff than what I did to you guys two years ago. Believe it. I can do way worse than just slap you around, pull down your pants and unbuckle your chastity. While you three were stewing away in a cell doing nothing but slacking off, I've been training and working hard on perfecting my craft as a master prankster and a public nuisance," Naruto grinned before wagging his eyebrows suggestively. "Now… I wonder what kind of underwear you're wearing this time. Care to show and tell?"

Paling at the prospects of having her undergarments stolen from right out under her… again, the woman began excreting waterfall's worth of sweat with a brief but defiant shake of her head… before eventually caving in to the pressure…

"ALRIGHT! FINE!" she screamed with a red face, before glaring up at the still grinning blonde. "I'll talk. Just don't steal my underwear."

"I won't. Now sing for me. Who gave you all the information you know and sent you to kill me?"

"A Chunin with white, short hair and wearing a bandanna with your village's headband," Shuko answered firmly. "He said his name was Mizuki."

Recoiling a little at the identity of the brain, Naruto's gaze tightened. "Why did he want you three to kill me?"

"He said it was personal and nothing else. He knew that you were the one that put us away, so he threw us a bone."

"And the Scroll of Seals?"

"A scroll sealed away by the First Hokage said to contain all of the village's most dangerous kinjutsu. It's one of the most valuable items in Konohagakure and that Mizuki guy said he wanted it all for himself."

"Alright and where's your rendezvous point?" Naruto asked with a stone hard glare. "Where were you three going to meet him after you dealt with me?"

"An old shack in the west woods," Shuko replied quickly with a nod in the direction of. "After that huge explosion we set, odds are he's already got the scroll and is heading straight there. He'll be outside the Land of Fire by sunrise."

"Unless somebody stops him," Naruto said with a smile appearing on his face. Seeing the surprised and doubtful look on the woman's face, he smirked even wider. "I know every forest in this village like the back of my hand. No one can outrun me on my turf."

"You know he's a Konohagakure Chunin," Shuko pointed with a frown. "He'll kill you…"

"Please," Naruto rolled his eyes, "Whenever Chunin were sent after me after I painted the Hokage Monument or lined their uniforms with itching powder, I ran circles around them." He then nodded politely to the woman scowling at him from the floor. "Thanks for all that, by the way. I owe you."

"Untie me," the kunoichi snapped.

Naruto grinned cheekily at her. "No can do. After what you did to me back there, you're going back to jail." He then stuck his finger in his mouth, "Wet Willy," and then stuck it in her ear, getting the kunoichi to squirm and snap at him.

"I hate you."

"I know," Naruto chuckled before bringing his other hand around and flashing the girl a pair of black panties and a bra right in her startled face. "You did one hell of a wardrobe change too. Good job." He then quickly ran for it just as the woman turned a bright scarlet and shrieked after his retreating shadow.

"YOU PERVERT! YOU SAID TO ME THAT YOU WOULDN'T! HOW THE FUCK DO YOU EVEN DO THAT?!"

"Magician's secret!" Naruto yelled back, his voice echoing into the room from the window he just jumped out of, leaving one flustered kunoichi and another unconscious one…

OOO

Elsewhere…

Minutes earlier…

Noriko was pissed.

Not only was her team's side-mission completely ruined thanks to the quick-wittedness and sly actions of the most troublesome opponent they'd ever come across, but her cover was also blown and she was running for the hills. She was sure if Kureha couldn't deal with the brat and was somehow taken out again, she had no doubt in her mind that the kid would immediately head off to alert the home forces of the real game playing out in the shadows, which was why she was moving as fast as she was now.

If there was a chance that that brat was still alive after facing off against her teammate, then she needed to catch Mizuki before he got out. There was no way in hell he was cheating them out on their deal.

"On that note," the kunoichi thought, stopping on the rooftop of a building over a dozen blocks out from the jinchuriki's apartment and turning around. Flipping through several hand seals, she then finished in the sheep seal and grinned. "Katsu!"

The moment she gave the command, a pillar of fire and smoke suddenly rocketed into the sky on the horizon and bathed the village in an orange glow. The shockwave that came with it reached her several seconds later.

The affected area was in the vicinity of Konohagakure's main entrance, one of the most likely places an invading force would try to take first when mounting an assault on a fortified community. Think about it. What enemy army would be stupid enough to attack a several-story high wall in an attempt to invade a hidden village when there was a perfectly good gate out the front?

Since that was where the main highway from the village started, it would definitely be at the top of the list of targets you needed to take out first. The explosion was big enough to fill the sky and cause the earth to tremble even where the kunoichi was standing a few kilometers out. Watching the fire begin to below black smog and embers into the atmosphere, right on schedule Noriko was able to see countless Konoha shinobi left and right begin making their way to the disaster zone in force.

She could see their silhouettes bounding across rooftops. This was definitely the reserve guard being called up to repel the 'attack' on the village.

"Well… that certainly got their attention," Noriko chuckled before turning heel and beginning to make her way to the rendezvous point, "Time to seek the nearest exit."

Just as she was about to take off however, the sound of kunai flying through the air stopped her in her tracks, three knives cutting right past where she would have been a second earlier before her path was cut off by Tayuya skidding to a stop directly in front of her. The red haired musician glared straight at the kunoichi with her fingers balled and her holster unclasped, ready for a fight. Noriko paused at the sight of her and glared back in mild surprise.

"Aren't you? Yeah, I figured it was you," Noriko chuckled harshly. "You're that little shit's roommate. Tayuya, right?"

"I'm not letting you move one step further," Tayuya stated, yanking her flute out of her holster and holding it up in her usual grip. "I'm taking you down right here and now."

Noriko stared incredulously at the girl for a moment before giving off a raucous laugh. "You want to fight me, girl?"

"You bet I do," the red head exclaimed with a smirk. "Bring it."

The silver haired kunoichi was quick to frown before spreading her feet apart in a solid fighting stance. She made a draw for her sword, at the exact same time Tayuya raised her flute to her lips. "You're out of your league, twerp. I'll cut you down before you even get the chance to blow a single note from that instrument of yours."

"We'll see," Tayuya shot back before breathing in.

The exact moment the red head acted, Noriko lunged at her, drawing her sword. The blade of her weapon flashed under the light of the moon and alerted the young musician to the danger of an incoming attack. However, the moment she got to within ten paces of her, Tayuya had already started playing, filling the air with a beautiful melody that, from the attacking kunoichi's point of view, suddenly flooded the air with what appeared to be heat waves.

What looked like heat in fact turned out to be sound waves wafting off of the girl's flute and disturbing the atmosphere, which rammed into the dashing kunoichi swordswoman and stopped her dead in her tracks. Feeling like she was hit by an invisible wall, Noriko gave a pained yelp and staggered away, a split second before her body seized up and stiffened like a board.

Eyes widening in horror, the trembling woman, whose ears were now being clogged with the sound of gentle flute music, looked around her to see her world distort into a mishmash of white, red and black paint. When she looked down to see what was happening to her body, she saw that her feet were beginning to melt into the ground and that snakes were starting to jut out of every part of her body to coil around her. The boa constrictors fulfilled their intended purpose as natural binders before sinking their fangs into the kunoichi, paralyzing her and keeping her frozen.

"W-What the hell is this?" Noriko choked out.

"Mateki: Mugen Hebi Onsa." (Demonic Flute: Phantom Snake Sound Chains)

Looking up in alarm, Noriko saw the redhead materialize out of thin air in front of her, no longer playing her flute but wielding a kunai. The young girl, top half solid with her bottom half still forming out of smoke, furrowed her brow at her bound target before lunging at her with the knife.

Alarmed, the silver haired kunoichi acted fast. Biting down on the corner of her lip and drawing blood, Noriko sent a bolt of pain shooting through her brain, jump-starting her nervous system and snapping her out of her trance.

Awakening from the genjutsu immediately had Noriko's senses set on overdrive, allowing the woman to quickly evade the attack from Tayuya and counter with her sword. The red head barreled right passed the woman's previous position, barely avoiding the sword when it came down on her and rolling to avoid her follow-up. Stopping in an all-fours position, Tayuya then glared over her shoulder at her opponent to see the woman glaring back at her, not only with a busted nose but with blood trickling down from her lip.

"Damn it! I thought I had her," Tayuya thought with a frown. "She's obviously skilled enough to know how to break out of genjutsu, which means she has Chunin level experience, but judging from how rigid her movements are she hasn't been in practice for a while. I'll definitely be able to win in a close-quarters fight if I force it, but it looks as though she wants to keep this engagement at a distance."

It was annoying, but Tayuya was proficient enough at middle-range to feel confident about a swift victory.

Getting up, the redhead turned to face the glaring kunoichi to see the woman drive her sword into the roof, where she then left it to stand.

Aware of her disadvantage at close-range thanks to being in a cell for the last two years and having her body worked over in interrogation, Noriko reached back into her two pouches and grabbed a cluster of shuriken in each. Her smirk reappeared in full force. "You know some interesting tricks for a flute player, speck. But I won't be falling for anymore of them like I did to that punk you call a friend. Honestly, I have no idea what you see in him."

Tayuya gritted her teeth. "Naruto-kun is a good person! He saved my life and gave me a home! He's my friend!"

"Whatever," the kunoichi spat before widening her stance. "It's high time for me to leave. I'll take you out before you get another chance to trap me. No more games."

"No doubt she's going for her shuriken. So it's a stand-off?" Tayuya thought as her grip around her flute tightened uneasily. She considered it carefully, all the while making sure her opponent was standing well within her sights as she rose back up to full height. "Obviously she won't risk another charge while I've got my flute. She'll try to hit me quickly with throwing weapons before I can cast another genjutsu, and then finish me off with another dash. I can dodge her throwing weapons… but I won't get another chance to trap her while we're at this distance. She'll have me ducking and dodging to prevent me from producing illusions."

She cursed at her inability to play her flute while in motion. It was a weakness she made a note to cover up later.

Ridding herself of any further thoughts on the matter, Tayuya silently measured the amount of space between them as she slowly began to ease around, the kunoichi in front keeping the flute player locked inside of her crosshairs.

"I can't put distance between us to try for another song, she'll just use that opportunity to get away and I don't think the effectiveness of my sound waves will be able to travel fast enough to catch her," Tayuya concluded before stopping. Realizing the futility of her flute playing in this chess game, she carefully slid it back into her holster and widened her stance. Her fingers twitched as she eyed her opponent carefully. "I'll just have to get close to her. The moment she throws her shuriken, I'll swing around and move in."

"She's thinking of getting in close to me," Noriko thought with a deepening frown. After watching her opponent ease around and put away her flute after a full minute of facing off, the kunoichi began breaking down the scenario that was bound to play out in the next few seconds. She knew that their next exchange would be their last. "She's really perceptive for a brat. Just from looking at the way I acted she knows I'll be able to keep her from using her flute with throwing weapons, so she's going to try for a close-quarter engagement instead. I'm not going to deny that she can't pull her weight, my body is feeling pretty heavy from lack of training." A smile then brimmed on her face after some moments of thought, while her hands holding the shuriken behind her twitched before suddenly forming a hand seal out of sight of her weary foe. "If you want to try and get to me, be my guest. I have a little surprise for you."

It wasn't long until the silence of the stand-off was effectively broken, with Tayuya making the first move. The red head ducked in low and charged right in, intent on cutting short the kunoichi's plan and closing the distance between them quickly.

"Saw it!" Noriko shouted, throwing both arms forward and unleashing a barrage of shuriken upon her target. She then clapped her hands in finality of the jutsu she had performed. "Gen'ei Tajū Shuriken!" (Multiple Phantom Shuriken) The second she did, the barrage of eight metal stars she chucked at her target multiplied tenfold, forming a wall of spiraling metal flying at the girl in an uncoordinated formation.

Tayuya looked up in alarm, seeing the wall of blades bearing down on her.

Quickly realizing that it was physically impossible to throw so many shuriken at the exact same time the redhead calmed her nerves and listened to the air carefully. The world around her slowed by several seconds as she honed in on the approaching weapons and broke down the mechanics of the technique. "She multiplied the number of shuriken through a genjutsu; an optical illusion designed to confuse the enemy. If that's the case, then the real ones should be the ones breaking the air and making noise, so…" Eyes snapping open, her pupils darted through the wind from one area to the other, before she finally picked up on a dead spot coming from, "The right!" Tayuya swiftly changed directions in mid-charge and barreled to her side evasively.

Rolling under the shuriken wall, seeing some pass through her yet ultimately dodging the real ones completely, she then sprang back up and rushed at her opponent. She then slapped her hands together to form a hand seal to a technique she'd just recently finished learning and began the sequence. "Katon…"

"-Gokakyu no Jutsu!" (Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique) Noriko shouted a split second before breathing out a torrent of fire at the approaching Tayuya, seeing the girl look up with a start towards the massive ball of flames flying straight at her. "Too slow, kid!"

Seeing the torrent shooting through the air towards her in the form of a fiery wall, it appeared that Tayuya was done for. However, while still running forward and flipping through hand seals, unsure of what to do next, the girl then spotted a rather small yet barely noticeable opening in the attack that seemed to encompass her entire view of the world in front of her.

For some strange reason, she could see her opponent's feet underneath the gigantic sphere of flames now threatening to run her down…

Seizing the opportunity and gaining inspiration from Naruto's fighting methods, the red head threw her upper body backwards and dropped herself onto her back in mid-sprint, resulting in her literally sliding right underneath the giant fireball. By the time she hit the deck, and both she and the attack meant for her grazed passed each other by a hair, the musician had already finished forming hand seals. "-Hosenka-" A quick inhale later and Tayuya slid within range of her target, who'd finished expelling flames from her mouth and was now looking straight down at the girl sliding towards her in shock.

"What?!"

"-no Jutsu!" (Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique)

"SHIT!"

Tayuya fired off a smaller, much more versatile ball of fire at the woman, nailing her square in the chest followed shortly by a dozen more. The volley of fire balls exploded against the enemy kunoichi repeatedly, causing her to stagger away yelping out with every hit before she was inevitably sent careening over the side of the building when Tayuya fired off her last and most devastating shot at the woman.

Noriko's charred body flew across the street, rammed into a billboard, and fell three stories to the ground where she landed with a deafening thud. Any villagers wandering the streets below leapt away from the crash site in surprise, having not expected for some random person to suddenly come dropping out of the sky like a sack of potatoes.

After sliding to a stop after a successful attack, Tayuya breathed a sigh of relief, stood and walked over to the edge of the building she was on. Peering over to see the unconscious form of the woman far below, the red head grinned and pumped a fist in victory.

"Fuck yeah, dattebayo!" She then saw the villagers on the street below look up at her oddly and blushed. Tayuya quickly raised a hand in apology, "S-Sorry…"

OOO

Half an hour later…

Elsewhere…

Though it had been a close shave, to have slipped right underneath the Third Hokage's nose and get out with trophy wrapped firmly in hand, the sense of accomplishment and the feeling of pulling off the impossible never felt so good.

Seriously. This feeling of success and joy filled Mizuki's heart and soul as he flew through the trees at top speed, Scroll of Seals over his shoulder and a massive grin on his face.

Chuckling to himself, the man stopped when he came across the familiar hut situated in the middle of the woods surrounding the village; the agreed upon destination where he would cross paths with the trio of kunoichi he had hired on as extra help for the last time. Since this was entirely his plan, he knew exactly what he needed to do, where he needed to be and at what time he needed to be there, all in order to clear up the last of his debts. It was something akin to starting a new life with a clean slate.

He wanted to make sure the cannon fodder did their job, killed the Kyuubi brat, and made it out of there scot-free. The last thing he wanted was an entire village on his heel if they somehow caught wind of him through them.

On the other hand…

"Why would I need to worry about an entire village when I have this?" the man chuckled while tapping his fingers against the massive scroll hanging behind him. "I've got all the power I need right here. Once I learn everything I need from this scroll, I'll become the most powerful shinobi in the world, maybe in all of history!" It did belong to Hashirama Senju at one time after all. That definitely had to count for something.

Once that thought crossed his mind and knowing full well that he finally had his main objective in his possession, Mizuki quickly concluded right then and there that he didn't need to uphold his end of the bargain. This whole business with the three kunoichi and killing Naruto; they were just bumps in the road, mere stepping stones. He only needed to get over them to continue on his way, and what better way to do that then do that right now?

He didn't have to wait around for the extra baggage and risk getting caught. They could have their revenge on the brat. They got the Intel they wanted anyway.

Chuckling, Mizuki rose to full height on the branch and patted his prize. "So long, Konoha," the man sang.

Just as he was about to take off however, he suddenly heard a rustling of bushes ahead of him and stopped in his tracks. When he looked up to see what the noise was, the man got quite the surprise when he saw Naruto Uzumaki himself drop down from the canopy and land on the branch across from his. The blonde, looking grungy from an obvious sprint through the forest, huffed impatiently before fixing his best glare on the white haired man.

"Caught yah," the blonde exclaimed with a victorious smirk.

Mizuki blinked in shock. "N-Naruto? How in the world did you find me?" Or better yet, how in the hell was he still alive? Didn't he send those three dogs after him to tear him to shreds? What the hell was going on?

Naruto chuckled and wiped his nose proudly. "The next time you want someone killed; better to do it yourself than to hire out a bunch of deadbeats to do it for you, Mizuki-sensei." He said the last suffix with a lot of spite in his voice.

"Fuck. They screwed up. How could they screw up? I thought…" Mizuki cursed in his head, grinding his teeth in frustration before allowing a smirk to come back to him. He faced the boy with renewed interest and confidence. "Hmph. So you're not as pathetic as you made yourself out to be after all these years at the academy, Naruto. I'm impressed."

"Thanks."

"You've really come a long way from the little street shit you were when you first set foot in that place."

"And you've really come a long way from the whiney, boring, poor excuse of a substitute teacher you were when I first laid eyes on you when I first set foot in that place. I've gotta admit, this whole trying-to-kill-me-business and stealing Hokage-jiji's scroll has put you in a new light for me, teme."

"Likewise. But I don't have time to play around with the likes of you," Mizuki replied while shouldering the large scroll hanging from him, which the blonde eyed carefully for the briefest of moments. "I've got a relic to cash in. This thing's got a lot of secrets to share with me and I don't intend to waste them."

"That's funny, because I don't hear it talking back to me the same way," Naruto replied harshly, clenching his fists. When he did the canopy above him rustled again and he was soon joined by a small band of macaques and gibbons, which appeared around him on the branches. When the sight of the monkeys surrounding Naruto didn't surprise Mizuki, then the swallows that suddenly darted out from behind the man certainly did. When the little birds perched on the blonde's shoulders, the jinchuriki frowned. "I'd like you to give that back now."

"Not a chance in hell," Mizuki barked with a grin, before drawing a massive Fuma shuriken from behind him and snapping it open. The massive star between his fingers then began to spin like a saw blade. "It's mine! If you want it, then you'll just have to pry it from my cold, dead hands!"

Naruto chuckled darkly. "I was hoping you'd say that." The animals around him dispersed the moment Mizuki threw the massive shuriken at him. Timing its approach, Naruto ducked right under it and sprang straight across at the Chunin, who leapt at him in kind with kunai drawn.

"Since those three kunoichi I sent after you failed," the man roared, taking a swing at the boy and watching him spin around it, before the two passed each other and traded branches, "Then I'll just have to kill you myself!" They turned and glared at one another, a split second before Mizuki leapt with a wide lunge. "Die!"

Naruto waited for the man's blade to come within range. It was the moment it appeared just inches from hitting him the blonde swayed back till he literally fell over the side of the branch, but instead of falling to an untimely death, his legs hooked onto the branch and he swung around it. His body rocked like a weight and went right under the still lunging shinobi, whom he appeared directly underneath a second later and sent a full-swinging uppercut right into his stomach. With a yell of effort, Naruto drove a punch with the force of a piston straight into Mizuki's gut, a loud thud ringing out and causing spit to fly from the man's mouth.

Beginning to fall straight towards the forest floor after receiving the counter, Mizuki choked in disbelief. "What power. How can he hit so hard?" It was when he began spinning towards the ground the Chunin remembered the boy's sparring matches of months past and how he was able to knock-out the genius Sasuke Uchiha with a single punch that one time. It was this memory of that particular incident alone that jogged Mizuki out of his stunned descent. "That's right… taijutsu is one of his strongest points. Shit!"

Flipping to control his fall, Mizuki landed hard on the ground below and spun around; glaring up to see the boy perched up on the same branch high above and looking down at him. From the angle Mizuki stood at and was now glaring at his target from, the boy looked very much like a monkey with his left arm swinging in front of him and his form crouched on the section of tree.

The sound of animal calls filled the air as the Chunin felt himself get pelted by seeds and berries from the family of monkeys up in the canopy. The man held an arm up in annoyance when the projectiles came dangerously close to his face.

"Punk," Mizuki muttered, tossing a barrage of shuriken at the blonde. He watched the boy dodge them and leap to swing around the tree. When he appeared on the other side the Chunin threw a kunai after him, and then another, but the boy kept leaping through into the canopy evasively and disappeared before the white haired thief could take another shot at him. "Damn it!"

For several minutes Naruto was gone from sight with no trace of him to be found. All Mizuki could do was search fruitlessly through the treetops for any signs of him from where he was on the ground, weapons at the ready and an intense look on his face. It pissed the man off that the boy was so good at hiding and that he also had characteristics of a wild animal, which made the Chunin consider setting the entire place on fire to try and smoke him out.

However, when it appeared as though the blonde had fled the scene, a light thump suddenly resounded behind Mizuki that had him spin around and look with a start. Drawing the last Fuma shuriken on his back, he ditched the weapon straight at his target that he now saw dashing straight at him from a distance, the windmill blade cutting a fine path across the grass. It seemed like a sure hit, until Naruto swayed right under it and continued on unhindered towards the Chunin.

"You are like a fucking cat," Mizuki shouted, charging at the boy in kind and throwing a full roundhouse kick at him. Naruto leapt over it and countered with a jumping side kick straight into his opponent's chest, which sent his foe blasting back. Upon skidding to a stop, the winded Chunin glared up to see his little target swing around and lunge in at him again. The man countered with a left jab, only to see Naruto duck under it with his right hand extending towards his side, which immediately had alarm bells ringing in Mizuki's head, "Shit! That jutsu…!"

He remembered seeing what Naruto did earlier today out on the firing range with Iruka. He saw and heard what the boy was capable of performing when his hand came in contact with something. This was a jutsu he had seen and wanted to stay well out of reach from. So, upon spotting the boy's counter coming in low, the man reacted instantly by disengaging from his jab and kicked off the ground as fast and as hard as he could. The result was the jinchuriki's swing missing him by inches and Mizuki leaping off to the side in full retreat, sweat pouring down his face.

"I'm keeping the hell away from him! With his ridiculous speed, evasive tendencies and that jutsu; it's dangerous to try and go toe to toe with him," Mizuki thought, landing a safe distance away and sliding to a stop. Upon watching Naruto turn to face him, he removed the Scroll of Seals from his back, propped it beside him, and began flipping through hand seals. "I'll fight this one from a distance!" He then tossed a barrage of shuriken and slapped his hands together. "Futon: Reppusho!" (Wind Release: Gale Palm)

A blast of wind emanated from around Mizuki's body and was sent careening towards his small target. While this appeared to be just an ordinary gust of wind with no real piercing power, the true value behind the technique was to speed up the shuriken he threw, which he sent towards the blonde haired boy at an even greater speed. The shower of throwing knives whipped and twisted on the powerful air currents, threatening to cut the boy down in a rain of metal.

Naruto reacted to the danger and immediately dove behind the tree behind him, the wind smashing into the trunk, resulting in the shuriken impaling nothing but wood. The increased strength and power of the knives though did chip away bigger chunks and dug in much further than they would have on their own, but they ultimately failed in hitting the boy, now concealing himself from the storm.

Mizuki grinned when he saw the boy take cover, "Ha! What's the matter, Naruto?! Where'd all those fancy moves of yours go?"

He saw the boy look around momentarily.

When Naruto ducked back behind the tree and waited for a bit, he then suddenly appeared on the other side and fired off something small from the gauntlet on his wrist, which Mizuki intercepted with a shuriken and knocked it out of the air.

The firework exploded when it was hit, detonating safely out of range of its target.

Mizuki cackled in amusement, "Your little tricks won't work on me a second time, Naruto! I've seen them before!" He began flipping through more hand seals, something the jinchuriki was able to spot when he poked his head around to take another look. "Can't fight at long range? Well that's too bad! At this distance I can hit you with anything I want. You can try and stop me if you like, but I'll just jump out of reach and hit you with my big guns."

"Big guns?" Naruto shouted. "If you had any, I wouldn't be standing here, would I?!"

"I don't plan on wasting moves against the likes of you."

"Oh that's funny, because it seemed like you were getting pretty desperate back there, Mizuki-teme!" Naruto yelled in response. "Haven't you realized yet that I'm good?"

"Ha! Good? Don't make me laugh! You're just a noisy delinquent; the class clown, the village's biggest nuisance and the worst excuse for a shinobi I've ever seen! You're a worthless teenager with no parents! Nobody cares what you do or what you say! Even your mum and dad abandoned you!" The grin he wore on his face showed just how badly he wanted to hit this kid, whether physically or verbally. He then chuckled when he got another bright idea when all he received from the blonde in turn was silence. "Since we're on the subject, do you want to know why everyone in this village hates you?!"

Naruto scrunched his face up in anger, "You know what? I really don't give a shit what you have to say to me! I'm dropping your ass right here and now!"

"Drop me? Beat me? You're a thousand years too early to even face me! Do your worst you little shit!"

"Man he's annoying," Naruto thought, glancing around and quickly taking stock of his surroundings, "Enough with this beating around the bush bullshit. Time to hit back." And hard. As much as he wanted to play around with the Chunin the jinchuriki just wanted to get this stupid battle over with before something bad happened; but how and with what? That was the question.

What did he have in his arsenal that he could throw at this guy?

He had his gauntlet and ammunition. That always came in handy. He contemplated firing pellets at his target to stun him and try to get in close, but the Chunin appeared to be on the lookout for his tricks, as seen by how he was able to shoot down his firework pellet from before, even though he didn't know what it was. Mizuki wanted to settle this thing at long range, which also explained why he moved to the distance he was now at and was holding the centerfield. This pretty much ruled out anything involving trying to get around, blindside his opponent or steadily pour on the small stuff.

Naruto concluded that he needed to get the guy with something big, but also something he wouldn't expect. Something he couldn't see.

He had his Jet Hand. But this was useless without something to touch, plus he was concealed behind a large tree, which he couldn't really use let alone move unl-

Naruto stopped when his hand felt up against the bark of the trunk he was hiding behind and looked up. From his spot, the jinchuriki saw how massive the oak was, from the width of the trunk, to its branches, to how heavy he estimated it to be based on its sheer size. After patting his hand against it several times, a devilish smirk then crossed Naruto's lips and he looked over his shoulder once more toward the Chunin positioned perfectly on the other side of it. "Oh yeah. This will do nicely."

"Take this you pest!" Mizuki exclaimed, finishing with a Tiger seal before breathing in deeply, "Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!" He then exhaled, spewing a torrent of fire that quickly formed a ball and began tearing across the ground towards the tree, intent on incinerating it.

Grinning at the opportunity presented, Naruto leapt off of the side of his cover, turned to face it, and brought his right hand back. "HEY MIZUKI! CATCH!" the blonde shouted before slapping his hand against the trunk.

Almost instantly, a blast of wind rocketed off of the side of the trunk from where Naruto touched it, the winds tearing up the ground and kicking up dust while the user leapt safely away. Seconds later, the large oak was ripped right out of the ground by its roots and propelled straight into Mizuki's incoming fire ball.

Because of the sheer size of the tree, its density, the speed it was traveling at, and the fact that it also had a wind release technique propelling it, meant that when the enormous projectile collided with the even smaller fireball, it literally obliterated it before continuing straight for the Chunin who had just finished feeding chakra into his own attack.

Upon seeing his fireball get smashed by a flying tree, Mizuki's eyes bugged out of their sockets.

Dodging an ordinary throwing knife was one thing, but dodging a full-grown oak traveling at the exact same speed as a shuriken was another.

The man threw his arms up to guard and let out a girlish shriek of terror, "OH SHIIIIIIIIT!" Unable to move in time, the tree smashed into the Chunin and sent both of them straight into the woods.

The oak tore through the forest a good two-hundred meters before ending with a good portion of the woods surrounding the clearing brought down and the land ripped asunder in the wake of the terrifying cataclysm. When the dust settled, Naruto proceeded to stroll across the clearing toward the crash site, picking up the Scroll of Seals that had been knocked aside and humming a pleasant tune along the way. When he finally arrived at the scene seconds later, he saw that the oak he had thrown and several other trees had been mashed together, and that Mizuki had been knocked aside in the twisting, vortex of chaos.

Not only was he knocked out from the way he was mumbling incoherently, but his uniform was torn up, he was covered in bark, bruises and cuts, had blood dripping down his head, a busted leg, a mangled arm, and judging from the stench of urine in the air, the man had also wet himself.

Naruto laughed at the sight pitiful, "Wow. That worked better than I was hoping it I can call this fight a big win for me." A smile pulled across his lips before he looked down at the Scroll of Seals safely under his arms.

It was a really big scroll. Definitely something you would notice sitting in an office or a vault room.

Assuming that the entire length of paper contained explicit details on countless ninjutsu and techniques of a malicious nature, it made sense that somebody like Mizuki would want to get his hands on it to use for himself. There was no telling what kind of frightening and dangerous jutsu were contained within its chapters.

So, being the curious cat that he was, Naruto peeled it open to take a peek. Scanning over the opening section, the blonde blinked at the first jutsu that popped up, "Taju Kage Bunshin no Jutsu?"

Reading the information on the technique and the hand seal specified, the scroll said that it was a jutsu that allowed the user to create multiple, solid copies of himself by splitting his chakra evenly between each copy. It also said it was dangerous for a fact that it could potentially kill the user if they didn't have enough chakra, which had Naruto rolling his eyes at. There was a whole bunch of other stuff too about shared learning experience, using it to confuse the enemies, tactical advantages, each clone being able to act independently and all that noise; all in all it was a pretty impressive technique.

In fact, Naruto was really tempted to learn it, feeling that this was probably the jutsu that could make up for his inability to produce a regular clone through the Bunshin no Jutsu.

He rolled the scroll up a second later and shrugged.

"Meh, I'll try it out another time. I'm pretty happy with just using my Jet Hand for now. Maybe I can mix it in with my other techniques and create some new combinations with it," he exclaimed while looking down at his hand and flexing it. Giving an affirmative nod, he then turned back to his previous issue lying across the trench in the ground and scratched his head. "So… what do I do with this piece of garbage?"

OOO

The next morning…

Naruto let out a very tired yawn that pretty much killed the silence of his classroom and drew a lot of attention from the surrounding students to him. The sheer volume of his exhausted call indicated how sleep-deprived he was, which had a lot of people scratching their heads over what could have happened last night that had him in such a state of exhaustion.

The jinchuriki however was not interested in telling anyone about the details. After he and Tayuya had managed to bag both Mizuki and his accomplices following the attempted theft of the Scroll of Seals, they then dragged all four perpetrators to the Hokage's office, dumped them right on the carpet, and informed Hiruzen of everything that had happened. The elder was indeed pleased to have the scroll back in his possession and even more so when he reviewed the kids' handiwork on the people responsible for the incident at the village's main entrance.

Having to put out a massive fire started by a bucket-load of explosive tags was not an easy thing to clean up.

Upon hearing their reports and everything they knew of the situation for himself, the Hokage congratulated them for a job well done and ordered all four collaborators to be processed. After this attempted breakout, he made sure to have the three kunoichi filed quickly and to be sent off to one of their other facilities outside of the village. Mizuki on the other hand would face questioning from Ibiki and serious punishment for his actions, before being sent off to prison.

It had been one hell of a night that Naruto and Tayuya both slept soundly over. But even with all their success…

"I still wasn't able to get any study-time in, damn it!" Naruto thought, glaring towards the front of the classroom with tired eyes.

As frustrated as he was, he couldn't help it. Whatever happened happened, and even though he wasn't able to catch up on any of his work from over the year, he was still able to fly through the written exam, and perform both of the jutsu required for him to graduate. With the Bunshin no Jutsu exam in full swing and Iruka calling up students one at a time to the classroom next door, this left Naruto waiting with baited breath for his results to be delivered.

Within minutes of the beginning of the Bunshin trials, Naruto was soon the only one left sitting in the room. He slumped over his desk exhaustedly and continued to wait. After all, he promised Iruka that he would.

Just as it seemed like he was going to be left out of the grand finale and the graduation ceremony, the opening and closing of the classroom door at the bottom of the stands caught Naruto's attention. Roused from his state of semi-consciousness, the boy looked up to see Iruka making his entrance to the room. The Chunin, wearing his usual stare of indifference, took to the stairs and approached Naruto's row, where he then moved into the one in front before coming to stand before the jinchuriki.

Naruto blinked when he met the serious scowl of his teacher.

"S-Sensei?"

Oh God. Did he fail? Was this firm expression on his instructor's face an indication that he had failed all of his exams? The man wasn't carrying any extra headbands, papers, awards or trophies with him, only his clipboard. A feeling of dread quickly began to well up inside Naruto when he received no response from the scarred Chunin, and rested his head in his hands in shock.

"Oh no…"

"Naruto," Iruka spoke up suddenly, catching the child's attention again. When the jinchuriki's eyes locked onto him, the instructor smiled. "Close your eyes."

Curious, the boy did as he was asked. He felt the pressure around his head from his goggles removed and replaced by something else, something that lacked the elasticity of the eyewear's bands, the discomfort from its lens pieces and the familiarity of its placement. Once Iruka had finished doing whatever it was he had set out to do, the man stepped back and grinned.

"Now go ahead and open them."

When Naruto did, the boy gazed up at his teacher in surprise when he saw the man was no longer wearing his headband. With his goggles dangling from his teacher's hand, the Chunin nodded happily to the jinchuriki when he quickly realized what must have happened.

"Congratulations. You graduate."

Suddenly, Naruto seemed to forget how tired he really was.

A new light unexpectedly filled the room when, without warning, Iruka was tackled by his student leaping over his desk to hug him. It happened so fast and so suddenly that the instructor had no idea if it was the glare of the sun from outside or the smile on his student's face that blinded him.

Either way, it was a bright day for both of them…

TO BE CONTINUED…

---

Author's Note: Wow. That took a while. But at least I was able to esstablish Naruto and Tayuya's current relationship and living conditions, as well as set up the series to follow how it would have started in this scenario.

I also think it's the perfect first test of Naruto and Tayuya's abilities: three kunoichi with rusty skills and one pussy of a Chunin that wouldn't stop running his mouth. But don't go thinking this is the last you will see of the kunoichi. The fun is only just started.

I've already written up to the Chunin Exams, but I'm just writing ahead to see how well the story pans out. I'm looking forward to writing the rest. :)

Hope you all enjoyed it.