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

10. Land of Waves Arc - Express Delivery

Author's Note: There's a minor problem with the uploading of this chapter, so if you get repeated alerts of chapters being updated, that's just me trying to fix the problem.

Other chapters on the way. This one is just being troublesome.

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NARUTO

Drifting

Express Delivery

Five weeks later…

Tayuya leapt back to avoid a kick from her opponent and brought her flute around. Twirling it in her grip, she then held it up and used it to block a punch, the force of which caused her to skid back as Naruto had put a lot of weight behind it. The jinchuriki smirked when he pressed forward, but the girl held firm with her pipe and dug her feet in. For a musical instrument, it was pretty sturdy.

"Damn, Tayuya-chan. How strong is your flute?" the boy asked, their arms trembling as they kept each other at bay.

The musician he was dueling smirked, "It's a war flute, dummy. Shinobi who use these in the field need to have an instrument that can take a lot of punishment. That's why these things are built solid and to last. Only strong jutsu can really damage them." Upon saying this, the girl leapt away at the exact same time her opponent did.

As soon as they landed and skidded to a stop, Tayuya sprang forward again and, brandishing her flute as a sort of stabbing tool, began thrusting at the boy with murderous precision. The jinchuriki swayed away from the first blow and began weaving oddly around the ones to follow. The girl led with her forward hand, using well-practiced taijutsu strikes taught to her by her sensei.

She had been instructed to slash at her target repeatedly to seal their counters, something she was not afraid to use against Naruto who started to back circles around the field while dodging.

At first it seemed like Tayuya had the edge, forcing the jinchuriki to retreat the way she was. However, even if it looked one-sided, the redhead was the one who was being led around, which had her grit her teeth in frustration when she sped up with shorter, more compact blows. "Why can't I land any hits?" Swiftness increasing, she started adding kicks and more circular maneuvers, trying to cut off the area for him to use.

Unfortunately, Naruto was aware of her strategy and continued moving around her in unexpected directions. When he swayed, he spun on the spot, making a leading blow for Tayuya impossible when he managed to get behind her. The girl kicked at him, causing him to lean to the side and throw a counter. The redhead blocked it with her arm and threw a left jab, but was forced to block again when his right swung around her hit and threatened to slam across her face. A swift counter that missed and a retreat was her response.

"Going close-quarters with him is ridiculous. Though my reaction time is way better than when we first started, it's impossible to hit him with conventional attacks," Tayuya thought and took a crouching stance, holding her flute at her side like a kunai, ready to run through her opponent the moment he tried something.

Naruto smiled, "She's good. Way better than any of the other kids in class. Sparring with me has really pushed her fighting skills and reflexes up several notches." The jinchuriki then dug his feet into the earth before dashing at her at blinding speed, catching the girl by surprise. "Well then, how about this?"

The red head threw both her arms up just in time to stop a dropkick Naruto sent straight down on top of her. How he was able to throw one in mid-sprint was beyond her, but his speed and power put behind it were unbelievable. The girl felt her body nearly bend under the impact while her feet sunk into the ground to the top of her soles. When she held her ground, she stepped forward with her right and sent a left kick straight up at him, but the jinchuriki jumped off the ground with his one foot and spiraled in the air in front of her. Just as she was coming at him with her attack, he suddenly stopped spinning and, suspended in the air upside-down, brought his hand around for a palm strike, a sight which alarmed the musician.

"Whoa!" Tayuya disengaged from her kick and slammed her attacking foot into the ground. She pushed off the grass as fast as she could and flew back, the exact same moment her opponent's strike brushed the air once occupied by her body. The red head skidded to a stop, guard outstretched and protecting her body as she saw the jinchuriki land with a light tap. "I saw that, shithead."

"Nice move," Naruto exclaimed with a grin. "You were able to spot my motion in the middle of my flip despite my trick move and speed. Your reaction time is spot on, Tayuya-chan."

The girl blushed at the compliment and nodded, "Th-Thanks, Naruto-kun."

Standing up, the boy nodded toward the girl while slipping his hands into his pockets. "I think we'll call it a day for now. Got any plans?"

"Well… I'm meeting up with my team a little later for some training. Genma-sensei is going to be sparring with all of us to work on strengthening our coordination when attacking as a group. This was a great warm up leading into it," Tayuya replied while beaming.

"Spar, huh?" the blonde chuckled.

The girl raised an eyebrow at him. "You're busy too?"

"Kakashi-sensei said he was going to be putting our team through a couple of drills to practice our squad's maneuvers for when we're out on the field. He mentioned something the other day about upgrading our tasks to a much higher level of mission soon." About time too. I mean… three weeks of those repetitive chores. It was starting to become a little bit dull doing the same stuff over and over. He was honestly getting a little tired of walking Inuzuka dogs.

They were seriously strong dogs … smart asses too from what he gathered when he sat down and chatted with them on their breaks. Apparently they really only appreciated their partners spending time with them and not smart-aleck brats. They were ninja hounds in training after all, so it made sense that they would be a bit cocky and prone to making the lives of Team 7 miserable.

Tayuya nodded and straightened to full height, pocketing her flute. "Same here. Genma-sensei told us that he's really keen on getting our group into some tougher assignments. I think we might be seeing our first C-Rank mission in the next month the way we're going." She clenched her fists in excitement.

Her roommate could barely contain his eagerness as well as he approached her, taking her by the arm and leading the way out of the area. "You're lucky. Our sensei hasn't even mentioned the idea of moving into a C-Rank mission yet. It's a little bit annoying."

"Be patient. I'm sure he'll come around… eventually," Tayuya giggled, wrapping her arms around Naruto's and allowing him to drag her along. The boy gazed down at her as she laid her head against his broad and comfortable shoulder. "Just rake in as many D-Rank missions as you can. The experience all adds up in the end so make each and every one of them count."

Naruto grinned and picked up the pace, "Hopefully they'll all amount to the next level of mission we're going to go on. I'll talk to the others and see if we can convince our teacher to upgrade us to a C-Rank as soon as possible."

"Best of luck then, shithead," Tayuya exclaimed, changing tactics and hopping up onto his back. The blonde stumbled forward a little bit startled, but managed to regain his balance and glance back at the sly smiling musician. "Carry me. I'm tired."

"Already? We've only been training for the last couple of hours." She was usually more energetic then this. Why was Tayuya being weird all of a sudden?

The girl gave him a pleading look, "Pretty please, Naruto-kun. My feet are sore."

Surprised by her tone of voice and taken in by her captivating expression beseeching his gentleman's side, the Genin quickly caved under the pressure and gave her a smile in return. With a courteous nod, he helped readjust their position and quickened his pace. "Alright then! Off to Ichiraku's!"

"Yay!"

XXX

A couple days later…

"Do you think Kakashi-sensei will take us on another long excursion outside of the village soon?" Naruto asked Sasuke and Sakura as they walked down the road together, having just gotten off another shift of work and looking forward to the rest period ahead. "It's been ages. I'm getting stagnant just running around the village doing nothing but ordinary chores."

Sasuke closed his eyes as they marched on in conference, "Don't know."

"Maybe he's keeping us back a bit after what happened on our last mission," Sakura suggested, looking between the boys before beaming across at the jinchuriki. "I don't know about you two, but I thought that was a pretty rough day for all of us. Since he's our teacher and everything, I think he got a little shaken up after seeing us get attacked like that… especially you, Naruto."

"Sensei doesn't need to worry about me. I'm built like a tank," the blonde replied, patting his abs proudly while turning skywards. "I can take anything and walk away from it."

Sasuke looked across at him. "How exactly did you walk away from that last attack that guy threw at you?" Catching the blonde's attention, the genius continued. "I saw where you got hit. No way would a person have been able to survive something like that."

A little bit caught off guard by his teammates' sudden interest in his health insurance, Naruto feigned a look of confusion and shrugged, slipping his hands behind his head. "Don't know. Maybe my organs were all built to one side." Yeah, that was a really stupid answer. No way was Sasuke going to let that one lie from the way his face scrunched up in suspicion.

"Maybe that Fu girl used some kind of healing jutsu on you," Sakura suggested helpfully, drawing the genius's attention towards her instead. The girl dipped her head in a sort of shrug, "You said you were unconscious when she pulled you out of the river. Maybe she helped close that wound with a special technique to stop you from bleeding to death. The doctors said you were fine when you checked in with them."

"Yeah. Yeah. Perhaps you're right, Sakura-chan," Naruto chirped, beaming across at the girl for her reasoning.

Sasuke, though still a little bit unsure, allowed the topic to slide at that.

Perhaps his teammate was correct on that assessment. I mean, neither him, Sakura or Kakashi had been there to see exactly what had happened after their friend was pulled out of the stream and fixed up. Plus the patient himself had been out of it the entire time. From the look of confusion on Naruto's face and the reasons being thrown around between them, it was clear that whatever happened on that day would remain shrouded in secrecy into the foreseeable future.

It was an indisputable law of the world. Some secrets just weren't meant to be revealed. Only time would tell if that rule actually held firm.

"Enough about that," Sakura exclaimed, looking up at Sasuke fondly. "What do you think Kakashi-sensei has planned next?"

"Hopefully something more exciting," Naruto said, stretching out and glancing back at his friends with his characteristic grin in play. "I want to get down and dirty, like, right now!"

Sasuke leaned away from him with a bit of a frown, "Don't say that while you're standing so close to me, dobe."

"What?! You got a problem with the way I say things, Sasuke?"

"I have a problem with everything you say. Not just that."

"You want to fight, teme? Huh? Huh?" Naruto asked, half-joking and half-serious as he tried to make himself look big in front of the Uchiha, puffing his chest out and bumping into him at the same time. When Sasuke looked away and grunted, the blonde grinned triumphantly and backed down, "Yeah. That's what I thought."

"Why do you have to be so annoying?"

"I'm only annoying to you since all you ever do, is play that same broken record you've had for the past few years. Come on." The jinchuriki nudged him in the side. "Live a little."

"Hmph."

Sakura shook her head at the pair and sighed, "Stop bickering you two. Everyone's looking at us." She gestured to the villagers around them, who were watching the squad march on by with bewildered and odd expressions in play. "Be nice."

"I'm trying to, but Sasuke's not making it easy," Naruto replied brightly.

The prodigy smirked, "Quiet down, idiot…"

"Make me!"

XXX

A few weeks later…

The Kyuubi grumbled impatiently as he laid his head across his arms and glared down at the bothersome child sitting in front of his cage.

Even though it appeared like nothing had been going on between them, for the last couple of hours since falling asleep, Naruto had been regaling the giant fox in his various tales of gallantry and good old-fashioned ridiculousness from the day preceding. He did this every time he dropped into bed and nodded off. He would become aware of his consciousness, pop down into the recesses of his mind, sit in front of the giant gates of hell, and drawl on like a radio during news hour.

And, just like every other night, the boy wouldn't stop talking even to draw breath, and the giant demon of malevolence, as per the terms and agreements of their routine, would get annoyed and try to ignore him.

Unfortunately for him, it wasn't that easy to try and block out the voice of the loudest kid in the village, so basically the Kyuubi had no choice but to listen and nod vaguely toward every little detail spouted from the human adrenaline shot.

How did it ever come down to this; that he would become babysitter to the world's most troublesome, airheaded future Hokage the village had ever seen, or so Naruto kept telling him?

"Why do you bother me with your incessant jabbering, you worthless brat?" the Kyuubi asked after seeing the child grin up at him after telling him about the recent training session he'd had with Sasuke and Sakura. "All of this is meaningless to me. I can see everything that you see. I can hear everything that you hear. Everything that you experience and do in your miserable, day to day life, I am forced to watch and take in… however boring or monotonous it may be."

"You say that, but I know you enjoy my stories, especially when I dress them up a little," Naruto exclaimed, still grinning from ear to ear.

"Hmph," the fox grunted, shutting his eyes.

"Anyway, when I met up with Tayuya's team later on we all went out for dango and stuff. Shiho's treat! Kaede-kun really wanted to know how to make the ones sold at the store and as soon as we ordered, he asked the chef for some pointers. Boy… you should have seen him; he was so excited. He took out this little diary from his pouch and wrote down everything the cook had to say. Every word, every instruction, every little detail. I've never seen anyone so excited about food before in my life," Naruto chuckled, throwing his hands up in exclamation. "Except maybe Choji, but I bet even that guy would gag on Kaede's cooking. It's horrible."

"Yes… it's absolutely tragic," the Kyuubi replied sarcastically. He'd seen the results. It made him laugh.

"When we sat down at the table we talked and talked for hours. It was great! The missions Tayuya-chan's team went on today were so different from ours. Kakashi-sensei gave our team six scrolls this morning. Six! That's more than our average of four. But it makes sense seeing as that he's bumping up our assignment levels little by little, so things are bound to get tougher the further along we go," Naruto said loudly before sighing. Taking in a few deep breaths, he then straightened up and continued. "We had to find an ostrich, take it back to its home, got into trouble, then came back and searched for items people had lost in the past month. After that we had to chase a stupid cat named Tora. Boy… that guy had some seriously mean claws."

The Kyuubi grunted, ear twitching. "Yes I know. I healed you afterwards."

"Yeah, yeah! Thanks for that by the way. The guy was really upset when we finally managed to catch him. He said his master was always touching him, picking him up, hugging him too tightly and dressing him up in all these weird cat clothes when they were alone. That's why he ran away. It was terrible. I could see why the poor thing didn't like that lady very much; she seemed so needy. I tried to tell her not to play so rough with him, but I don't think she heard me," Naruto said, folding his arms and legs and looking away with his characteristic, squint-eyed expression. "Life for some animals is hard."

"You're telling me," the fox replied with venom, referring to his own predicament. Naruto however ignored the growing frustration in his voice and continued.

"So afterwards, Tayuya-chan told me about the missions she and her team did. They were pretty good too. They had to trim hedges, paint an entire building, then go over to the Yamanaka store to help deliver a shipment to the gardens for the summer festival! I bet this year is going to be great! I'm going to take Tayuya-chan, Sakura and even teme! We're all going to go! I just need to find a suitable robe for-"

"ENOUGH!" the giant fox finally barked, startling the boy when he reared his head and glared down at him. His blood red eyes pulsing with veins conveyed his aggravation at the child's presence and showed how perturbed he actually was. "Just shut your mouth, brat. I'm done with your pointless drivel."

Blinking a few times, Naruto smiled, "Don't be so mad. This is fun."

"No. It's not. You're testing my patience with your stupid stories and 'impressing' me with your pathetic friends," the fox growled, sending waves of killing intent at the child. "It's sickening. And secondly, why the hell do you keep coming down here to talk to me? WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT?"

Looking up at the fox's angry visage and hate filled eyes, Naruto sat silently for a bit and thought about exactly why he kept coming down here to talk with it.

Well… for starters, after learning about the Kyuubi and the seal that was keeping it inside of him, the blonde first figured that maybe he could make good out of a bad situation by coming to speak with the demon itself, to try and come to terms with things. He knew nothing about his predicament, he didn't know why the fox was sealed inside of him in the first place except for the fact that it was the Fourth Hokage who did it, and he didn't know what to do about it. Oh sure, he was going to keep it a secret, but there was something about it that was nagging him.

It was that sixth sense he had that told him whenever danger was near or something was off. Call it a habit he'd developed from hanging out with forest dwellers for so many years.

Secondly, and Naruto came to realize this himself, was that being stuck in here all this time, on his own, without anyone to talk to, the jinchuriki thought the fox was lonely. He was agro, short-tempered and frustrated. Clearly he didn't like being in here and that he had some unresolved issues that he just kept buried away in the darkest parts of his soul. Naruto thought that maybe if he could cheer him up, make nice with him and spend some time with him, he'd be able to get him to open up a little.

Like he said, it was worth a shot.

"Well?" the Kyuubi growled impatiently.

"I just want to hang out with you, furball. That's all," Naruto shrugged.

"Don't play games with me! You're too far beneath me to try getting the best of the great Kyuubi no Yoko. You may act like you care about others, like you're kind and friendly, but I know what the humans of this world are really like. I know how you view us demons. You're all the same," the Kyuubi barked, "You're spiteful, arrogant, selfish, ignorant, and cruel. I've seen it all before; what your hatred is capable of. I despise all you humans and laugh at your pitiful contempt for life."

Naruto blinked as he listened, watching the fox grin at him with its canines in full view.

"You fear us bijuu. You treat us as beasts and nothing more than mindless beings meant to grant you humans power. That's all we are to you. Tools meant to be used. There's no good in any of you. There's nothing but greed, abhorrence and darkness. So tell me, boy… what do you really want from me?"

Remaining silent for the next few minutes, Naruto suddenly hopped to his feet and slowly walked up to the cage. The giant fox watched his every step intently, raising an eyebrow when the boy suddenly placed his hand against it and leaned in. Giving the Kyuubi a blank stare, the blonde then gave him a sad smile and tilted his head.

"I just want to be friends with you, Kyuubi," Naruto exclaimed, causing the fox to visibly recoil. "You wanted to know that badly? Well, there you go. That's my answer."

Gritting his teeth, the nine-tails breathed on him, "That's a lie. Don't joke around, you retch!"

"I'm not joking around. I'm being absolutely serious," Naruto said loudly, his grip against the bar tightening as he gazed up at the demon trying to drill a hole into him with his eyes. "You were locked in here all on your own for all these years with no one to talk to and nowhere to go. It must have been hell for you. I should know because I know how much it sucks being alone, being stuck in a hole and being filled with hate. After meeting you and seeing how upset you were, I just wanted to do something about that." The jinchuriki nodded affirmatively at his answer, his expression brightening when an idea came to him. "Yeah. That's it. I know what I want to do; I want to get rid of all that hate inside of you."

The Kyuubi's eyes widened as he glared down at the runt, who continued grinning fearlessly up at him. After what felt like an eternity of silence, the giant fox sneered. "Really…? You want to do that?"

"Mm," Naruto nodded once before moving off of the bars. "It's been rough with you inside of me, yeah. But it sucks being filled with hate all the time. Believe it." He backed away while radiating his characteristic aura. "Sure, a lot of people are scared of you guys and hate you because of the things you've done, but there are others out there who are different… people like me. I don't care what you've done, what you are or what you look like on the outside. Being hated and being filled with hate is wrong… and I want to change that. You can doubt me all you want, but I'm sure I'll get through to you eventually, dattebayo."

The Kyuubi huffed, watching the child move away till he sat back down on the water's surface. What followed immediately after that was another staring contest with one side trying to size the other up and the other just looking cheerful. Of course, while the Kyuubi was still glowering at the boy, deconstructing his words and trying to figure out his motives, Naruto just smiled warmly towards the giant animal and waited for him to say something.

When a certain amount of time passed, the fox grunted and leered, "You're one piece of work. You know that?"

Naruto's glow increased tenfold, "Right back at yah." After staring at each other for a little while longer, the blonde then looked down at the fox's arms, the place where the entity would normally rest his head and stare at him whenever he came to visit. His eyes then trailed over his wrists down to his paws, where… wait!

The blonde visibly jerked before scrutinizing the Kyuubi's limbs more carefully.

Didn't foxes normally have paws?

The jinchuriki stared long and hard at the folded arms, attracting the Kyuubi's attention. "What?"

Unflinching in his deadpanned expression, the blonde raised his right and pointed.

"Why do you have man hands?"

The Kyuubi immediately bristled at that question. "I WILL DESTROY YOU, YOU SMART ASS!"

"No you won't."

"WANNA BET?"

"You're too much of a softie," Naruto exclaimed before a sly grin spread across his lips, "Kyuu-chan with man hands."

"THAT'S IT!" the giant fox shouted before lunging at the bars. Gnawing at them with his teeth for a few seconds, he then yelled in frustration and tried to pry it open with his claws. "You're a dead man, Naruto!"

The blonde laughed good-naturedly at the fox's reaction, "Love hanging out with you too, furball."

XXX

A week later…

Hiruzen Sarutobi was just in the middle of sorting through the large collection of scrolls and mission reports laid out in front of him, at the same time signing off on the one that had just been handed over to him by Kurenai and her team, before a knock on the door interrupted him. When all eyes turned and fixed on the entrance, they saw it pushed open before a cheerful Naruto strolled in wearing his usual fox-like grin and hand raised in greeting. Kiba smirked when he recognized his old rival from school, Shino pushed up his glasses and Hinata blushed brilliantly under his radiant gaze.

"Hey, Hokage-jiji! Can I come in?"

The Third smiled pleasantly when he saw who it was popping in to visit, "Of course, Naruto-kun. Just give me a moment." Rolling up the scroll on his desk and sealing it, he then handed it to the patiently waiting Kurenai, who took the item from him with a courteous nod. "You're all set. I wish you and your team the best of luck."

"We'll be careful, Hokage-sama," Kurenai bowed before quickly ushering her squad out the door.

Seeing the group coming his way, Naruto stepped aside to allow them passage. Shino nodded to him when he walked by, Hinata shied away while uttering a gentle 'hello Naruto-kun,' and Kiba stopped in front of the jinchuriki and held his fist up. The blonde grinned and bumped knuckles with his academy rival before doing the whole twisting motion followed by the explosion routine, which they acted out with vocals and action.

"My man, Naruto!"

"Kiba! We'll catch up later, alright!"

"Will do!" the Inuzuka laughed. He continued on while waving over his shoulder, shortly followed by Kurenai who closed the door behind them.

Happy to have bumped into one of the other graduating groups here, Naruto then turned his attention to the mission desk and approached it. In the time it took for him to reach it, Hiruzen had already sorted through several more scrolls, signed them, boxed them, and upon setting them aside, turned to acknolwedge the boy's presence fully. When the jinchuriki stopped, he smiled and waved, "Yo!"

"What can I do for you today, Naruto-kun?" the Third asked curiously, lacing his fingers together in front of him with his pipe sitting comfortably in his mouth.

"Before I say anything, do you think we could get a little more privacy here?" the blonde asked gently while gesturing towards the leader's' staff walking about. He then placed his hand over his gut and rubbed, "I've got a bit of a stomach problem. It's… a little embarrassing to talk about." It was a half-lie. He wasn't embarrassed to talk about it; he was just uncomfortable talking about this particular thing when there was other people standing around, particularly people who probably didn't know about his 'condition.'

The old man's smile dropped a little. "Naruto… I thought we agreed that I would talk to you about it later."

"And we did… and to be fair it has been later. Two years later to be exact," the jinchuriki replied cheerfully, "There are some things I'd like to ask you that are really important." He saw a contemplative look come over the old man as he mulled over his request, which the boy knew would take him quite a while and decided to add a little more haste to the process, "It's pretty cool though, right? I mean… how can a big orange furball the size of a mountain be jammed inside of my stomach of all places? It seems physically impossible."

Hiruzen's eyes widened when the boy said that, his mouth dropping open and almost losing his lit pipe all over his documents. Upon processing the child's statement at light speed, the Third then ordered everybody out of the room, with Iruka smiling at his student on passing and giving him a wave in greeting, which Naruto gladly returned. Once everyone was out, the Hokage then gave the boy his full and undivided attention.

"How did you find out?"

Scratching his head, Naruto shrugged, "Don't know. I fell asleep after a night on the town and bam! I found myself in a sewer surrounded by crappy lighting, with a giant gate at the end, with an enormous cat with man hands sitting behind the bars."

"I hate you," the Kyuubi growled inside his head.

"No you don't," Naruto grinned back at his stomach. When Hiruzen raised an eyebrow at the blonde going off kilter for a moment, the jinchuriki panned up and continued, "Honestly though, the place could use some tuning up."

The Hokage sighed and rubbed his temple, looking across at the boy incredulously. "Stuff like this normally doesn't just happen to people, Naruto-kun."

"Well, I'm not a normal person and I certainly don't act like one. I live in the extraordinary. You know that more than anyone, oji-san. Except maybe Tayuya-chan. She lives with me."

Hiruzen furrowed his brow at that before giving a weak smile, "Well, in any case you managed to figure out the true purpose behind the seal across your stomach. The Nine-Tailed Demon Fox is locked away inside of you in a pocket dimension created through the powerful Hakke no Fuin Shiki, which the Fourth Hokage used in order to prevent the demon from destroying the village and running amok."

The boy tilted his head curiously as he listened to the Third speak, "I see. But… why?"

The elder closed his eyes, "The details of the event are sketchy. What we do know for certain is that the Kyuubi managed to escape from the seal binding it inside of its last jinchuriki and began attacking the village in a rage. It just appeared out of nowhere that night and started to destroy everything in sight. It took all of our forces and power just to drive it out of the village and into the forests."

The sheer amount of overwhelming force the Third was describing to him had Naruto in awe. It certainly rounded out the answer as to why people were so skittish around him. The villagers who were there at the time or remembered that night well must have experienced the Nine-Tails' power first hand. They'd watched their village torn apart by a massive fox, which also attacked their comrades and loved ones and killed many people in the process. This realization had Naruto deflate quite a bit as the full magnitude of what he was hearing finally got through.

"Whoa…"

"Yes. It was a dreadful night for all of us. In order to save the village from total destruction and to preserve the balance of tailed beasts throughout the shinobi nations, the Fourth Hokage sacrificed himself to seal the fox inside of you. By doing so he saved the lives of his people, the land, and restored order to our village. Now you can see why he is celebrated as one of Konoha's greatest Kages," Hiruzen said with a proud smile. Though he left a lot of the details of that night out, all he wanted to do was give it to the boy straight. The elder figured that learning of the Kyuubi and the reason for its sealing inside of him was more than enough for Naruto. Information on his parents could be saved for another time…

That is if he didn't press the issue.

Naruto patted his stomach, where he knew the Nine-Tails was resting and listening. Staring down at it for a minute or so, the boy then smiled and looked up. "Why me, though?" Hiruzen blinked, concealing most of his surprise behind it and a stoic visage. "Why was I chosen to carry the Kyuubi?"

"That… I'm afraid is a question I cannot answer for you, Naruto-kun," Hiruzen replied, seeing bewilderment and confusion come over the blonde's face. In order to settle the youngster's troubled mind, the elder then looked towards him with a more serious gaze, "It is for someone else."

"Huh? Who?"

"You'll meet this person soon enough," Hiruzen replied while giving the boy a firm stare. "He's a big, flamboyant man with long spiky, white hair, wears wooden sandals and goes by the name Jiraiya. He uses toads as his summons. If you find him, I'm sure he'll tell you everything you need to know about your situation and answer all of your questions." He'd made a promise to the Fourth that he would tell the boy all he could in due course and that he would leave most of that task to Jiraiya, who wished to carry much of that burden as well.

Naruto's expression brightened, "Sweet! Where can I find him?"

"He's out of the village at the moment, but he'll be dropping by before the Chunin Exams coming up in a few months time." Though the man was always on the move, he was still reliable. That's why Hiruzen didn't have to worry about his student not showing up because he most certainly would. The kid's timing was impeccable.

Pumping his fist, Naruto gave the elder a wild grin before turning heel and running towards the door. Before leaving through it, the blonde turned to the village leader and gestured gratefully towards him. "Thanks so much, Hokage-jiji! Don't worry. I'll keep an eye out for the guy!"

"Take care, Naruto-kun," the old man waved. The moment the door shut, Hiruzen breathed a sigh of relief and leaned back in his chair, holding his pipe firmly as he then gazed towards the ceiling. His expression became one of deep thought and meditation as he contemplated the matters that had appeared in the wake of the young Uzumaki's surprise visit. "I'm sure that Naruto will be fine. The boy's a strong one with a firm will and a good heart, and doesn't appear to be showing any signs of being manipulated by the Kyuubi in the slightest." Though that sudden trail off midway through their conversation was a bit odd, it wasn't something to be truly concerned about.

But was he actually talking back to the fox?

Hiruzen raised both eyebrows as he analyzed the incident a little more carefully. Never had he ever expected the Kyuubi to actually respond to the boy from just a mere joke. The blonde had managed to crack one out in the middle of his explanation to the Hokage and the fox apparently said something back to him. Even though the elder didn't hear anything, he was still able to see the boy's' expressions and hear his speech patterns change.

In any case, the Third initially believed the demon would be more hostile towards his host and prone to trying to gain control over him, as history with its other jinchuriki pretty much supported this claim.

But no. That wasn't the case. Naruto was actually bonding with the fox to the point where he was able to speak with it as an equal and that they were able to take shots at one another. It was so sudden too. Fascinating.

"Oh… that's right," Hiruzen smiled when a new thought overtook him and replaced his previous debate concerning Naruto, "The five Kage are supposed to be convening for this year's Chunin exams soon. I'm certainly looking forward to this one."

The biggest Chunin exams in history was coming up shortly; one that was going to be held between all five of the great shinobi nations and its smaller neighbors. Hell yeah did the old man have a reason to be excited.

Hiruzen though managed to buffet his eagerness through a veil of calm and professionalism, and continued to sit alone in the room with a small smile in play and pipe in hand.

XXX

Two days later…

"Jab! Jab! Right! Jab! Hook! Elbow! Right!" Naruto shouted, backing up as he called the punches for Sakura to throw as she hammered away at the wooden blockers he was shifting for targets. Grinning after receiving the desired hits, he dashed quickly to the side, not too fast that the girl lost sight of him completely but enough to make her work in pursuing. As anticipated, she cut him off, with the blonde keeping on his toes and running a circle around her so that she moved with him. "Jab, right, uppercut, kick!"

Loud cracks rang out as Sakura, biting down hard, twisted in with blows that hit Naruto's pads hard and shook him with every impact. From the amount of sweat pouring down her face, the way her expression was scrunched up and the sounds she exerted with each blow, it was clear that the exercise they were going through was working her to the bone. This was exactly what Naruto intended to do; to give the girl more experience in combat against an opponent and to give her a feel for technique while under pressure. She couldn't do that adequately while training on her own, but with her teammates that was a different story.

It was a habit they'd fallen into over the recent weeks, where the team would get together and hash it out at their best. They would take turns switching between each other to help work on their skills and abilities, most predominantly their weaknesses. While a couple had a lot more work to do than others, every session was worthwhile and valued greatly amongst all three of them. Speaking of which, the entirety of Team 7 was currently occupying the clearing of Training Ground 3 and were going through the usual drills. Kakashi had taken Sasuke off to the side to work on his basics, since it was the best way to encourage a genius to focus on keeping their skills polished, and Naruto was working with Sakura on her taijutsu.

She may have been less adept as both the Uchiha and the jinchuriki at the beginning and lacked confidence in her own abilities to apply theory, but thanks to her touch up sessions with Kakashi and hard runs with Naruto, she was getting all of her material in stride.

Much to Naruto's surprise, her development was coming along just as well as Tayuya's. It had him scratching his head as to the reason why.

Taking a few hard hits that drove him back, Naruto then leapt away for space and held his ground, positioning his left pad low and right up high. "Body shot to finish! Give me your best!"

Sakura, grinding her feet into the ground, sprang forward in a rush. As soon as she got within range, she reacted just in time to duck the right counter Naruto threw, having become weary of it after getting hit by it so many times times, and took aim at the pad held over his side. Going in so low that it would be impossible to avoid her, the pink haired girl twisted in and threw a killer uppercut that lifted the blonde off his feet. A loud bang rang out when she landed the hit, followed shortly by a tap of Naruto landing back on solid ground with a pained grin.

The two stepped away from each other, Sakura swaying a little before collapsing to her hands and knees. Hair and face dripping, and clothes bathed in sweat, the girl panted raggedly and looked up to see Naruto smirk and inspect his wooden blockers.

The faces of the protective gear had filed away much to his surprise, and there were deep indents in both of them. It was a good thing he'd reinforced them because Sakura was developing some really hard punches. After shaking off from the last hit, Naruto easily removed the pads and slipped them under his arm. When he did, he looked down at the kunoichi to see her breathing heavily and still on the ground, coaxing a chuckle from him.

"I think that's enough for one day."

"Y-Yeah," Sakura wheezed, smiling up at the Genin, "Thanks… Naruto." She then dropped her head and allowed her sweat to run down to the grass freely.

Giving his teammate a moment to regain her bearings, Naruto then decided to address an interesting fact he'd discovered while he was holding pads for her. He chose not to say anything for a bit since she was clearly exhausted, but after the appropriate amount of time had passed he figured he'd been left in suspense long enough. "Your speed and technique have gotten way better since the first time we did this. Not only that, the strength in your punches is able to remain consistent throughout the entire session. Even when you're tired you keep coming at me with a lot of bite."

"I've… always had… a strong arm," Sakura panted.

"Yeah, but your stamina isn't really up to snuff yet. We're going to have to continue working on that," Naruto pointed, tilting his head.

The kunoichi chuckled when she heard him say that. "You're going to make me keep doing this until I get as energized as you? Aren't you?"

A shrug was Naruto's response. "If you want to."

Sakura smiled under her mess of hair. "I'm a stubborn girl, so I guess I'm going to give it my best shot no matter what I say."

Naruto laughed and dropped the pads on the grass beside him, looking up to see Sasuke still sparring hard with Kakashi not too far from their position. The Jonin was really taking it easy on the genius, who was apparently trying his hardest to land a hit on the damn guy. That was pretty much the noticeable difference between them and the masked instructor; a massive gap in skill, experience and shinobi-know-how.

"Still, you're doing pretty damn well for a girl who says she's been dieting for most of her weeks in the academy. I figured that you'd have been so focused on what you ate on a daily basis that you wouldn't have had the time to work on hitting as hard as you do," Naruto exclaimed off-handedly. Perfect technique aside with momentum to generate power, her show of strength from before had been quite a pleasant surprise.

Blinking a little, the girl gave a small sigh of resignation before looking back up towards her partner, showing him a nervous smile. "Actually… to tell you the truth… I never was able to diet properly…"

"Hm?" Naruto cut down to her in surprise. "What do you mean?"

Sakura shrugged and pushed herself to her feet. "Ino tried it. Knowing her she got it down pat, but I never did. My body just couldn't take not eating and my parents practically force-fed me every night. All of that talk about dieting back at the academy… heh… that was all just talk." She placed her hand on her hip and smiled across at Naruto after dusting herself down. "I would stop eating every so often, but I couldn't do it for too long. My body just couldn't handle not getting energy."

"Really?" The boy raised an eyebrow in interest.

Before Sakura could say anything else, they were suddenly interrupted by Sasuke wandering over and entering their circle. The raven haired genius, looking pretty grimy and grungy from his training session, gestured over his shoulder toward their instructor standing in the distance and reading from his orange book. "You're up, Sakura."

Beaming, the kunoichi stretched her arms out and dashed off, calling thanks back to Naruto for his help before making her way towards their teacher. When she jogged a fair way out of ear shot, Sasuke decided to step over to his jinchuriki rival, where they both stood and watched the girl confront her teacher to get a rundown on their segment. Their moment of pause gave the two boys a small space of time to chat.

"Hey, Sasuke."

"Yeah?" the prodigy replied, not needing to turn to see the serious look on Naruto's face.

"You've noticed it too, haven't you?"

"That Sakura is talented?" The Uchiha nodded as they watched Sakura take a position a little ways out from Kakashi as they finally gave their training time a green light. It was a ninjutsu session for her today, and her teacher was going to help her to develop something new. "Yeah, I know."

"And here I thought she was only book smart. No; she actually has some natural talent in her body for hard punching," Naruto replied, not even taking a second to look away as he watched the girl fly through hand seals before vanishing in a puff of smoke, leaving a log behind in her place before she appeared behind her teacher and attacked him. When their dance finally started up, the jinchuriki glanced over to Sasuke. "She's no genius like you, but she's pretty close."

"Shinobi can be naturally talented in a lot of different ways," Sasuke informed a-matter-of-factly with a frown. "You can be a well-rounded genius; someone who doesn't need to work on their ninjutsu or taijutsu that often because they're gifted with the ability to become strong through minimal effort. You could be talented for theory and for working out the best strategies in a heartbeat, while at the same time lack physical fitness. You can be a bloodline user and extremely talented; able to use the skills given to you with very little exertion and fight on the same level as a Jonin. Or you can be gifted with ridiculous speed, reflexes, timing, or, in Sakura's case, physical strength, and be smart enough to apply it in battle."

"Sakura-chan's been so focused on other aspects in her life though that she never took the time to focus on polishing her skills or work on applying them," Naruto said while folding his arms. "She said she found it hard to diet and that her body practically forced her to eat, so basically all those times she said she dieted she was actually lying to appear more feminine to others. I'm guessing even with trying to eat less that she's able to store lots of energy in her system to give her the boosts of strength that she has, which explains why it's murder to fight her up close. She has a wicked swing."

Sasuke nodded in understanding; figuring it was something along those lines. "Because she'd been so focused on so many useless things, her stamina, confidence and fighting ability deteriorated in the academy. With her talent, if she'd had just focused more on the physical side of things and practiced instead of worrying about her appearance; she would have been something incredible."

Naruto grinned, "She can still be something incredible. Sakura-chan just needs some time to catch up."

The pair stood in silence for the next minute or so, watching Kakashi slowly retreat under Sakura's assault before knocking her to the ground. This didn't stop the kunoichi from getting back up and retaliating, forcing the Jonin to move some more and keep his distance, even though he was still reading absently from his book.

After watching for a little while longer, Sasuke turned to Naruto and cracked his neck. After which he then assumed a fighting stance. "So it's ninjutsu today, right?"

Immediately becoming excited from that question, the jinchuriki rounded on his rival and also took a firm stance, illustrating his intentions, "I was hoping it was. You're the perfect guy to turn to for this stuff, teme. It's not fun if my targets can't dodge right."

"Let's just get this over with so I can get back to figuring out the perfect way to beat you. Seeing how you operate… that shouldn't take very long."

"After all these years, you still haven't figured out a way to beat me, and I doubt you ever will. Dream on if you think that it's going to be easy," Naruto shot back.

Exchanging cocky smirks, the pair then sprang away from one another, the Uchiha flying through hand seals and the jinchuriki forming his cross-finger hand seal to counter.

Though not the full-on rematch that they wanted since it was strictly going to be ninjutsu today, it was still a desirable test to see where they stood against each other.

XXX

A week later…

Naruto and Tayuya, who had just gotten off of a long, early morning training session with each other, were on their way back to the village toward the hot springs to have a nice refreshing bath after a trying few hours of breathtaking exercises. Since they'd both been driving their techniques into the ground since before the sun started to rise, the two of them were pretty worn for wear, even if one of them didn't show it. Though Naruto admitted to being a little winded, he was for the most part fine. His training partner on the other hand was looking a bit more ragged.

"Man, who knew controlling a massive marionette made up of sand bags and stitches could be so draining," Tayuya breathed in exhaustion, referring to the new technique she'd recently developed and had been practicing for the past two hours. "Getting that big-ass puppet to move is no joke."

"I think it's pretty neat though. I didn't know you could use your music to move things, Tayuya-chan," Naruto replied, looking across at the girl to see her rub the back of her hand against her cheek to wipe away sweat and dirt.

The girl smiled at him, "Me neither. But hey! It works." She pulled out her flute and looked down at it. "Music is soul and I use chakra in conjunction with my music, so by controlling the flow of musical notes and chakra, I can give 'life' to anything I choose. I think I'll even be able to take control of people some day if I work hard enough…"

Naruto, blinking at that shared thought, chuckled nervously when he was finally able to process the idea in his head. "Man. That'd be pretty scary."

"Yeah, but I think it can be pretty cool too; taking control of someone else's body before they have a chance to use any jutsu or attacks. It's the ultimate stalling and redirection tactic." Not to mention the best attacks were normally the ones you didn't see coming; fact.

"If you keep working hard the way you are now, then I know you'll get it down pat in no time," Naruto said with certainty and confidence.

"Damn straight. I'm not stopping till I've mastered every flute technique possible. But I'll try not to stick to the one specialty. I want to get strong in other areas too so that I don't become a burden when the time comes to it."

"You're not a burden, Tayuya-chan. You're incredible already!"

Tayuya, blushing, bumped him in the side with her hip, "N-No I'm not, you jerk."

"But it's true. I mean, yeah, I don't think it would do anyone any good simply sticking to one strength. Unless you're super good at the thing that you do best and can beat anyone regardless of your weaknesses, then I'm sure yo-WHOA!" Naruto and Tayuya jumped out of the way when a barrage of shuriken suddenly flew at them from the forest to their right, impaling the tree they had just been walking by and, following the sharp thumps, brought a dead silence to the area. When the two kids peered from around the trunks they'd managed to hide behind, they glared into the brush to see what or who the hell had decided to attack them.

"Sneaky. I'm assuming they didn't want to be found out since I can't really sense well from up wind. But I got them."

Tayuya frowned and looked up at Naruto. "What can you see? Your senses are a lot sharper than mine."

"One enemy," Naruto replied, crouching low and placing his hand on the ground. Since developing this technique after watching how cats, deer, foxes and other animals reacted to the presence of other creatures hiding in the area, his ability at using this particular skill had increased significantly over the years. He could practically reach out even further and more accurately with it then before. "No… wait… two. One's up high at two o'clock… the other is twelve o'clock, ground floor."

"I'm guessing the one that attacked us is on the floor. It was a straight shot and a good one." The kunai had impaled the trees half-way up the blades and had missed them by an inch. That was a seriously good shot and a strong arm. "Distance?"

"Sixty meters."

"Seriously? Son of a bitch," Tayuya said in amazement. That was a fantastic shot even if they missed. Hopefully whoever it was that tried to turn them into kunai pincushions missed them on purpose. Shaking her head, the musician then glared around the trunk, "Oi! Shit for brains! Do you know how close you came with those things?! You nearly took our heads off, you twat!" Of course the best thing for her to probably do at this point was to try and stay out of sight without giving away her position, but she couldn't help it. Some smart ass, probably a shinobi from their village, had tried to kill them, and there was no way in hell she was going to stand there and take it without returning some abuse of her own. "Come out and apologize you fucking cock sucker!"

"Geez, Tayuya-chan, why not go out and beat them to death already?" Naruto chuckled with an amused grin.

The girl pulled up her flute and prepared to give their attackers the best damn concert she could perform, "Oh trust me, I will. Just give me a sec." She licked her lips and took a deep breath.

Before she could get her counterattack underway though, another voice, a girl's voice, suddenly flooded into their midst. "Hey! Are you guys Konoha shinobi?"

Blinking, Naruto looked over his shoulder into the undergrowth and frowned, "Of course we are! We're Genin! Who else would we be?"

"Really? Ah, shit!"

"See Tenten! I told you they were friendly!"

"Shut up, Lee! I didn't know. I thought it was a bear."

Tayuya's eye twitched. "A bear?" Appearing flabbergasted at first, her shocked look then deteriorated into one of sheer outrage and blind anger. With an irate growl, the red head then stomped out from behind her tree, "ARE YOU IMPLYING THAT I'M FAT YOU HORSE FUCKING, CUNTMUN-" She was suddenly grabbed from behind by Naruto slapping his hand over her mouth and lifting her off the ground with his other arm wrapped around her waist. The girl kicked and flailed to break out of his grip, but the boy kept a tight hold of her.

"Calm down, Tayuya-chan! It was just an accident!"

The girl managed to wrestle her mouth from under his hand, "MY ASS IT WAS!"

While Naruto did his best to calm his friend down, who wanted nothing more than to inflict bodily harm on the person responsible for the attack, the pair were shortly joined by the two people that had been keeping their distances from them; one of them being the would-be assailant. When the newcomers stepped into their area, the roommates were given the perfect opportunity to study up on their unintended antagonists. One was a tall boy about a year older with black, bowl cut hair, huge eyebrows, and was wearing a horrendous figure-hugging green spandex body suit with his headband wrapped around his waist. The other was a girl with brown hair tied up into buns, wearing green pants, a pink martial arts top and was holding a kunai in her right.

When both parties sized each other up, Naruto gave the pair a smile and waved pleasantly, "Hello!"

"Yosh! Nice to meet you!" the boy in green replied with equal enthusiasm. "You two are not hurt, are you?"

"Oh no. We're fine. Thanks for asking."

"Thank goodness. I'm Rock Lee by the way; Konoha's Beautiful Green Wild Beast! What's your name?"

"Naruto Uzumaki! Future Hokage!"

"Ooh! How ambitious. You wish to become the strongest shinobi in the village?"

"Damn straight!" Naruto chuckled, putting his hands behind his head before turning to the girl standing next to the friendly teen, "And who's this?"

"Oh… well this is-"

"Tenten," the girl with the bun hairstyle cut in with an apologetic bow. "Sorry for attacking you guys back there. I honestly thought it was a bear or a wild boar walking close to our training area and tried to scare it off so that it wouldn't get hurt. I didn't know there were other people in the area."

"Ahh, that's alright," Naruto waved pleasantly.

"Uhh… no it's not," Tayuya suddenly spoke before stomping up to the girl with an intense glare in play. When the red head stopped in front of the teen in pink, she raised her hand and jabbed her hard in the collar bone with her finger, "Do you know how hard you threw those fucking things?! Even when I dodged them I could feel the wind that they cut on the back of my neck! You could have taken down a horse with that power, you dumbass!"

Blinking in shock at the girl's free use of vulgarity, the kunoichi identified as Tenten looked back at her verbal attacker with a slightly offended expression and tensed, "Hey! I said I was sorry. Isn't that good enough for you?"

Gritting her teeth at her fellow kunoichi, Tayuya tentatively made a reach for her flute again but reframed from pulling it out of its holster. After a few calming breaths, the red head quickly figured a shinobi pissing contest over a near miss was probably a little much to settle an argument. Though she was eager for a fight, the musician knew better then to get into a brawl over pointless things and, concluding it to be just a waste of chakra, relaxed her hand.

Grunting, Tayuya then folded her arms and turned away, "Whatever. It was close shave. I got to call you a brain-dead twat anyway, so we're good."

Seeing the girl pout had Tenten smile. "Ah, so you were the one tossing all those colorful swear words at us? I gotta say you've got quite the mouth on you."

Frowning, Tayuya turned on her again. "What? Do you want a fight with me or something? Because if you do, I'd be more than happy to give you one if you-"

"Oh no, no, no, not at all," Tenten chuckled nervously while holding her hands up defensively, "I was just… just a little surprised, is all. I've never been called names like that before from another person, so it's kind of a shock to hear so many swear words coming from a girl around my age."

"Hmph," Tayuya huffed and looked away again, her finger tapping against her bicep as she let out her content little by little.

Seeing the kunoichi settle much to her relief, Tenten turned back to the blonde haired boy, who appeared to be the most okay with the whole 'attempted murder' thing, and sized him up again. Seeing him also relax when his companion did, the jinchuriki then turned to face her as their eyes met, "What were you two doing all the way out here? Does your team train in this area?"

"No. It's just the two of us," Naruto replied happily while pointing between him and the still frustrated looking Tayuya next to him. He then thumbed over his shoulder, "We train in a clearing not too far from here. It's a big area with a lot of space and it isn't out of the way from our apartment either, so it's a great place to go let off some steam. We were just heading back to the village to wash up."

"Oh I see. Morning workout?" Tenten asked, folding her own arms and smiling approvingly at the boy.

"Yeah. It's great after a cool night," Naruto chuckled while scratching his cheek.

"Yosh! Such invigorating and youthful mentality! Your commitment to physical fitness and training is just like mine and Gai-sensei's!" Lee exclaimed suddenly while thumping himself in the chest. His energetic voice was hard to ignore when both rookies turned to the boy in surprise and saw him salute with a thumbs-up and a grin that had Naruto and Tayuya reeling at its intensity, "It is an honor to meet such fine shinobi!"

Blinking, Tayuya gave the boy a weak smile, "Gee… uhh… thanks?"

Tenten grinned sheepishly at the Genin. "Don't mind Lee. He's always like this," she said while waving a hand in front of her.

The red head, though still a little ticked at the knife thrower, looked back at her nonetheless with an understanding nod. "It's okay. I'm used to it." She added to this by smiling in Naruto's direction, who stuck his tongue out shamefacedly and rubbed his cheek in embarrassment. "He's exactly the same."

"I'll bet," Tenten chuckled, looking across at the blonde and nodding, "Well. I'm sorry for attacking you guys. I'm just glad that nobody got hurt." She then noticed their haggard appearances and looked them over. "Wow, but from the looks of it, you two must have been tossing shit at each other for a while now."

"Oh… yeah," Naruto tugged at his ruined clothes and looked down at the tears, "Training today was pretty hardcore. We were just getting some practice in with our new techniques."

"Really? What kind?" Tenten asked curiously. Admittedly being the nosy type, the kunoichi couldn't help but wonder what kind of jutsu would have two kids tear at each other's clothes and get grime all over them before stopping for the day. Unless it was a taijutsu technique she was sort of lost. From the other kunoichi's exhausted face and her partner's condition, their session must have been really hardcore.

"It's still a little rough around the edges. I won't be sure of the effects until I get it down completely, but my other techniques are coming along well. All I need to worry about is the timing," Naruto breathed, giving the girl an apologetic, half smile. "Sorry if I don't get bogged down in any of the details, but the jutsu the two of us are working on is…"

"Kind of secret," Tayuya finished for him. They nodded in tandem.

Looking between them, Tenten beamed, "That's cool. I understand."

It was then Naruto's turn to look curious. "So… were you the one who threw those kunai from before?" He saw the girl affirm that with a gentle nod. "Wow. That was a really good shot. You must have one hell of a throwing arm."

Tenten blushed and had the common courtesy to look bashfully at her feet, "Thanks."

Naruto then looked up at Lee. "I'm also guessing you guys train close by here. Are you two on a team together?"

"Yes! We are," Lee replied gleefully while holding a fist to his breast bone, "We are members of the noble and powerful Team Gai!"

"That's the name of our sensei by the way," Tenten spoke, glancing between the pair before stepping aside and gesturing toward the direction she and her teammate had come from. Naruto and Tayuya followed her hand into the woods, "Our training area is this way if you want to check it out. The other guy from our team is still there… so…"

Naruto appeared excited at the offer and nodded his head vigorously. "Alright! Sounds fun." It wouldn't hurt them any to take a moment to see where some of the other training fields in the area were. Apparently his and Tayuya's training clearing wasn't the only one in here. A lot of other people had the same idea of setting up group training sites in the same woodlands away from the rest of the community. It made sense that a lot of spaces closer to home would be occupied. The jinchuriki gazed towards his flat mate with a hopeful look, "Wanna check it out?"

Tayuya shrugged, "Sure. Why not?" It couldn't hurt to get a bead on the rest of the competition either. With her spirited nature brimming, the musician eagerly responded to the new side arc knocking on their front door with a radiant glow.

Appearing more excited than before Naruto turned back to their hostess and her teammate, where he saw both were looking at them kindly. "Well. You've got our attention. Lead the way!" This was honestly the first time he and Tayuya had met another Genin team from Konoha that wasn't from their graduating year, and it was great to see that they were also friendly. Lee especially.

Tenten quickly proceeded to lead the troop through the woods from where she'd thrown her kunai, cutting around the brush easily and following the many paths forged by nature. After a few minutes of walking, Naruto and Tayuya eventually arrived at the edge of a clearing under a thin canopy with a training stump positioned in the center of the grounds and various target dummies set up all around the place. It was worth noting that many of the straw dummies were already riddled with kunai and shuriken, a sight that led both rookies to the conclusion that it was the girl with buns in her hair that had been responsible for all the bulls-eyes.

When the two paused at the tree line, they immediately saw another Genin in the area training over at the stump. Assuming him to be Tenten and Lee's other teammate, the two rookies noted that he wore a baggy khaki top with buckles, dark brown shorts and a black headband under long brown hair tied back into a long ponytail. He also had glassy white colored eyes, a sight that had Naruto blink as he recognized that particular type of eye.

"Huh… he sort of looks like Hinata," Naruto thought before smiling. "He must be related to her."

Sensing the arrival of his teammates accompanied by others, the boy over at the stump finished his combination with a swift palm strike and looked over. Stepping out of his stance, he folded his arms and turned to face the group completely when they gathered up in front of him. "I was under the impression that today we were supposed to be training together as a group. Why are you suddenly bringing riffraff into our training area, Tenten?"

The girl smiled apologetically before gesturing to the two newcomers. "Sorry Neji. We ran into them in the woods while I was doing target practice and thought a wild animal was passing through. I just wanted to show them our team's meeting place since they also train in a field not too far from here."

Naruto waved and Tayuya nodded to the boy in greeting, now identifying him as Neji. The teen in question then proceeded to look them over, recoiling a little at their worn appearances while also taking in their expressions. After analyzing them from head to toe, he then looked back up at the pair with a disapproving scowl. "Alright. So you've shown them our team's meeting place. Can we stop wasting time now and get back to training?"

Lee jogged up to his bitter looking rival and smiled assuredly at him, "Come on Neji-kun. There's no need to be so hasty. We've got plenty of sunlight to burn." He held a determined fist up to him and flashed his trademark smile, "Why don't we use this hour to show our youthful friends from the village here how Team Gai trains in its free time?"

Frowning deeply at the prospect, Neji glared back at Tenten and her company to see them appearing a bit confused. "I don't have the energy or the patience to be dealing with such unsightly characters. Why even bother wasting your day away associating with rabble when you could be using the time available to you improving your own skills?"

Naruto and Tayuya recoiled at the boy's words and tone directed towards them before the latter frowned deeply in offense, "What a dick…"

"He may look like Hinata, but he's a real jerk," the jinchuriki thought with a bit of distaste in his mouth.

Tenten, feeling hostilities arise as well as a little displeasure herself from hearing Neji's condescending words, smiled weakly at her irate comrade and tried to better reason with him. "Come on Neji, lighten up a little. These two are not that bad once you get to know them. Naruto here is a really nice guy, and his friend's pretty cool too if you can look past her colorful choice of vocabulary." She saw the red head glare daggers at her but shrugged it off like it was just a casual thing. "Who knows, maybe they're pretty good for rookies. If you give them a chance I'm sure they can surprise you."

Even though it seemed impossible, the already uptight boy's gaze tightened even more so. "My eyes alone can see more about their character and abilities then what they can show me through action. They're no-namers, bottom feeders… rabble. Leave them to their own devices and let them crawl up the ladder at their own pace Tenten, otherwise they'll just drag you down with them when they inevitably fall." He ignored the surprised looks he got from his teammate and audience. "Those born a failure are destined for failure. It's an indisputable truth that defines everyone who lives under that title."

By this point, Tayuya had had just about enough of this boy's tongue. Even Tenten was showing how irate she was getting from hearing her teammate undermine two seemingly nice people without even getting a chance to speak with them directly. He was treating them like they were a part of the background. Clenching her fist angrily, the musician prepared to stomp forward to give the guy the tongue lashing he deserved until Naruto's hand shot out and stopped her.

The two kunoichi looked at the blonde, expecting to see an offended look on his own face, but instead saw that Naruto was smirking quite boldly. Upon quelling his companion's offense, the jinchuriki grinned and stepped further into the light, "You must have been training pretty hard, huh?"

Neji raised an eyebrow at the male newcomer, "Yes? Even the gifted with insurmountable talent need to work hard to keep their senses sharp."

Naruto grinned and pointed at the stump, "I can tell. The ropes look pretty worn from being hammered all day. How long have you guys been a team?" The jinchuriki looked between Neji, Lee, and Tenten eagerly, before looking back toward the former.

"We've been an active Genin squad for over a year, even though some of us have skills that far surpass that level," Neji replied while narrowing his eyes, "What's the point of all these questions? Are you going somewhere with this?"

"Ah, don't mind me. I'm just really interested in you three, is all. You seem like a really well-oiled squad from what I can see already and you all look really strong," Naruto chirped, waving a hand before springing forward suddenly. He quickly gave the serious boy an excited look and raised a fist to him, "Hey! Why don't you and I have a short spar? You look pretty tough and I could use the experience."

Tenten and Tayuya looked at the blonde in alarm, with the former stepping forward, "What? H-Hang on a sec-" She was quickly interrupted by the jinchuriki cutting her off.

"I'm still sort of new to this whole Genin thing, and I'd really like to see how I stack up compared to others who've been in the game a lot longer than I have," Naruto exclaimed brightly, stepping further forward. "My team and I have been working super hard on our skills and on all of our missions. I'm interested to see if I've gotten any better."

Sputtering, Tenten tried to find the appropriate words to respond to Naruto's absolutely direct challenge, whereas Lee was looking between both his teammate and the blonde in amazement. When a heavy silence fell over the area, everyone outside of the challenger and the one being challenged thought that the blonde was going to get turned down outright, with Tayuya hoping for the exact opposite, since her hopes were set on seeing her roommate beat the snot out of the guy who had been undermining them since laying eyes on him. After a few minutes of nothing but birds chirping and breathing, much to Tenten and Lee's shock, a smirk crossed Neji's face.

The Hyuuga unfolded his arms, "Very well. I accept your challenge." He pushed past Lee and stepped out further onto the field, taking his spot in the open space. "You seem to be the type who needs to have a point beaten into their skull in order for the truth to finally sink in. I'll happily provide you with that service if it means putting you in your place."

Naruto gleefully leapt into the clearing as well and took up a spot directly across from his willing opponent. Tenten and Tayuya quickly moved forward to stand beside Lee, who had also pulled back in astonishment as his stoic teammate adhered to the spry Naruto's request. "No need to be so mean. I just want to see what level I'm at. That's all."

"Fair enough," Neji replied before glaring across at the rest of the group, "Lee; will you please referee this match?"

Blinking in surprise, the boy in green nodded affirmatively and stepped forward, "Yes. Of course." Clearing his throat, he then straightened up and lifted his head to meet the gazes of both fighters, "A one-on-one friendly spar! The winner will be decided if their opponent is unable to continue or concedes defeat!"

Tenten, looking worried, turned towards Tayuya to address her concern, "Why don't you say something? We should stop this."

The red head smirked with her arms folded, "Why? Are you afraid that your teammate is going to get his ass kicked?"

"No! That's not it at all!" Tenten replied frantically before leaning in to whisper to the girl, "It's Naruto I'm worried about. Neji has been a Genin for over a year and you guys are still rookies, right?"

"Yeah. So?"

"Then that's really bad. Neji was the top rookie of our year and possesses the strongest form of taijutsu in the village. After all our time spent training together, neither Lee nor I have beaten him once in a spar. He can take on both of us and win, so unless your friend is Jonin level or has some impossible trick up his sleeve, he doesn't stand a chance," Tenten hissed. This was a really serious case; absolutely within reason to sweat over.

Regardless of her explanations however, the red head beside her didn't appear concerned at all. In fact, she was still smiling. "Shithead may not be a Jonin, but he's a really hardnosed bastard and a really clever fighter. Don't think it's all over just because you guys weren't able to beat your own teammate. If it's a taijutsu match, then Naruto's got this one in the bag."

"Yeah, but-" Tenten stammered.

"Relax Bun-girl. Just stand back and watch. No need to flip out."

Yeah, she was one to talk.

Though hesitant and still fearing the safety of the newcomer, who didn't seem like much on first glance, Tenten felt that perhaps seeing what the boy was capable of first would be the better path to take than calling out on concern. Not wanting to judge a book by its cover like Neji openly did on a daily basis, the kunoichi then turned her gaze back to the pair and watched as Lee organized the entire procession while preparing to blow the whistle.

Neji settled into his clan's usual stance, palms up and legs spread into a wide and even position. He smirked across at the boy who continued stretching with his arms behind his head. "What an arbitrary and odd looking fellow. He may seem like he's got pluck and a lot of confidence, but strip all of that away and all you have are underdeveloped skills and no bite to match his bark." Hell, he wouldn't even need to use his Byakugan for this one.

He aimed to end this quickly.

It was then after seeing the jinchuriki finish stretching that Neji and Lee looked at him in surprise when Naruto did something completely unexpected and suddenly settled into a wide stance with his arms dropped in front of him. They began swaying from side to side like they were caught on a breeze, like boneless fillets hanging from a rack. With the smile he was also wearing to match his actions, it almost seemed like he was provoking his opponent, when in actuality it was his fighting stance. Even so, Neji and the others didn't know that, and all Tenten and Lee could do was gawk from their stations.

"N-Naruto-kun," Lee raised a hand worryingly, "A-Are you good to fight? Take your stance."

"This is my stance," Naruto replied with a bright grin, not taking his eyes off of his confused opponent for even a second. "I'm ready."

Appearing both perplexed and hesitant, Lee gulped before nodding in understanding, "Very well." Looking back to center, he raised his hand and dropped it, "Begin!"

Naruto held his ground, continuing to sway slightly while his opponent watched him intently. When silence fell, it became even easier for both sides to think clearly, with the Hyuuga taking the lead as he analyzed his opponent's stance. "He doesn't appear to use any known fighting style from this village… however…" He brought his hand forward a little further and placed his weight on his back foot. "That stance will allow him to get within range of his prey a lot easier when on the approach, yet leaves his body completely open to attack. Interesting." It was almost animalistic in appearance.

Despite how unorthodox it looked, Neji wasn't going to let oddity of style get to him. He still intended to finish this fight at his own pace.

Lee and Tenten stood back with tense expressions on their faces. They had no idea how the fight was going to start, how long it was going to last or what was going to happen. All they knew was that Naruto was stepping into some really hot water. Neji wasn't one to take fights lightly, even if you knew he was going to win. Before it was over they were sure the Hyuuga was going to cause his opponent some serious damage, even if it was just a spar.

Nevertheless, even with all this weight and anxiety hanging in the air, Tayuya didn't appear worried in the slightest. In fact, as she watched Naruto sway from side to side with his arms hanging in front and Neji edge forward in his stance, her smirk widened and gaze narrowed.

"Show me how much stronger you've gotten, shithead," Tayuya thought.

As if her thought were the starting gun, Naruto flashed his opponent a wider grin before raising his left foot like he was preparing to stomp it into the ground. Neji blinked when he saw this, his expression unchanging as he observed the blonde's actions carefully.

"Hey, hey," the jinchuriki chirped, before suddenly dropping his foot to the grass.

Neji's eyes widened the instant he heard the thump, because the exact moment the blonde set his foot onto the ground he just vanished from sight with only a small trail of dust standing in his place. Alarmed, the Hyuuga looked straight down to his right, where he saw the blurred form of his opponent reappear directly in his shadow.

"Watch yourself!"

"Whoa!" Neji thought in alarm before bringing his arms up, blocking what could only be described as a jack hammer slamming into him from the side. His body blown back from the force with a cloud of perspiration blasting into the air, the Hyuuga glared over his shoulder as he saw Naruto reappear in the area behind him, following an invisible circle encompassing the area. Blinking in awe at the speed the boy showed, Neji frowned deeply, "So you've got some speed hidden in those legs of yours. I'll admit… that's a surprise."

Tenten blinked and shook her head in astonishment.

What the hell just happened? She thought Naruto was standing in front of his opponent about ten meters away and the next thing she knew, she was seeing the same boy five meters behind her teammate and circling after a dash she completely lost track of. "Hang on. What the heck was that?"

"That would be shithead revving his engine," Tayuya exclaimed simply, her smirk twitching. She didn't want to use the word 'gunning' because she wasn't completely sure whether her roommate had actually gone at full speed. Nevertheless, that was a fantastically good dash. Since neither of the members of Team Gai were focused it wasn't surprising that they lost track of him.

"Damn," Tenten thought, shaking her head. "That speed is exactly the same as Lee's." She'd never seen another Genin their age move that fast except for her teammates. This Naruto boy was just a rookie and he had the speed of one with two years of experience. Where the heck had he been hiding all this time?

Not only that, the most shocking thing about his maneuver was that he didn't just go straight at his opponent. When he disappeared, he managed to run a full lap around Neji and come up from behind him.

As Naruto hopped around the grassy area in front of his opponent, Neji, still recovering from the shock of his agility, was now reevaluating his current predicament. A bead of sweat appeared on his face as he watched his opponent pace about on the spot, doing some weird and awkward footwork with a completely relaxed visage, "This truly was the first time an opponent completely disappeared when he was standing right in front of me. I suppose I will have to change the way I approach this." Expression becoming serious, Neji retook his stance as his eyes literally sharpened. On cue, veins appeared on either side of his face as he activated his signature doejutsu, giving him a complete 360 degree field of vision. "Byakugan! This rookie is something else."

Tenten blinked when she saw her teammate's eyes change, "Whoa. This is new."

Tayuya looked at the older teen seriously, "What's wrong?"

The kunoichi next to her frowned, "Neji never uses his Byakugan unless his opponent is giving him a hard time. The only people I know he uses it against are Lee and Gai-sensei, but… to activate his doejutsu now?" Tenten began to sweat nervously as she looked across at Naruto, who was still hopping from foot to foot. "He first assumed his opponent was young and inexperienced, and planned to intimidate him with his base style to end the match quickly. But it looks as though that plan didn't work out."

Chuckling, Tayuya looked back, "No kidding."

Lee, who had also seen the dash, looked on in amazement, "Whoa! What an impressive right overhand! Your speed is truly incredible, Naruto-kun!"

Neji frowned at the comment, "Lee!"

"Oh! Right! I'm supposed to be refereeing," the boy mumbled the last part embarrassingly before clearing his throat. "First move goes to Naruto-kun!"

Relaxed and ready to move again, Neji braced himself. "I'll be sure to take him down before he has a chance to counter. His speed isn't that difficult to deal with, but his power is something else entirely. I'll cut him off so he can't escape and disable his legs!" His feet digging, the Hyuuga then dashed forward with almost comparable swiftness, a cloud of dust kicking into the air. Lee, Tenten and Tayuya watched him gun straight for Naruto, who in turn watched in surprise until the genius was soon upon him with his fangs drawn.

The Hyuuga ducked in, swinging with an opening left palm strike. When it appeared to be a sure hit, Naruto frowned when he followed the motion of the attack and dodged, beginning to swing his body left and right quickly as his opponent pressured him with lightning fast combinations of palm strikes. Each strike unleashed a visible blue burst of chakra, a sight that surprised the jinchuriki and immediately told him to stay well away from them. Upon ducking and swinging around the first combination, Naruto quickly began hopping backwards at a rhythmic yet collected pace. Neji pursued.

Palm strikes cutting through the air, Naruto dodged using small left, right and backward sways, his body remaining upright with his arms at his sides as he timely avoided every attack. Neji advanced hurriedly, unleashing random combinations of palm attacks all aimed for his opponent's upper body. But with every pinpoint strike he fired off Naruto managed to sway away from it, keeping his torso, chest and head out of reach of the sharp blows.

The onslaught of attacks was so quick that it seemed almost impossible to counter, and those blue bursts of chakra made guarding against them a huge risk on the jinchuriki's part.

Tenten noticed the linear retreat that Naruto was making as Neji chased him down with unrelenting Juken attacks, which she quickly responded to in panic. "Don't step back! Neji is a straight hitter! He'll corner you with those!"

It was exactly as she said. Naruto was unknowingly or knowingly retreating in the direction of the tree line, where an oak stood clearly in his path. The serious look he wore told everyone that he was focused on every individual hit that Neji was throwing at him, meaning that he probably had no idea he was being forced into a narrow corridor.

After seeing him avoid a one-two palm strike to his chest, Neji upped his speed with a smirk and began striking at him more aggressively, with Naruto swaying at even more strange angles while continuing to shuffle back with graceful yet shift-by-shift footwork.

Tayuya furrowed her brow as she watched Neji attack. "If I remember correctly, Anko-sensei said the Hyuuga specialize in the Gentle Fist style. Using precise and accurate hits in conjunction with their chakra, Hyuuga shinobi are able to seal their opponent's chakra points as well as cause serious internal damage to their targets." She lowered her head as she considered the opponent Naruto was up against. "They have superb chakra control and accuracy as well; able to defend with the same bursts they use to attack the circulatory system. I can see why Naruto is avoiding conventional guarding against this guy. He's dangerous."

Naruto's back eventually slammed into the tree. Sparing it a glance at the sudden stop of his momentum, he then glared ahead of him again to see Neji advance the last few feet of distance between them and swing in with a left palm strike. Telegraphing its motion, Naruto watched it intently as the world slowed down around him, a time frame which was shared by his opponent who smirked as he uncorked his final attack on his now cornered foe.

The Hyuuga aimed for the neck, capitalizing on the opening presented to him. "Got you!" The flow in his motion was superb. There was no disjointed movement or blunt stagger, his attack was fast and perfect, as expected of a genius. "You thought you could dodge me forever? That was your mistake. Even though you were the one who asked for this, from the very beginning of this fight you were fated to be beaten by me. That's just the way it is." His palm cut through the air, intent on taking his now stationary opponent down in one hit. The boy was in line and right on the mark. "You can't change your destiny."

Lee gritted his teeth as he saw Neji's palm strike bear down upon his target, watching the whole thing in the same slow motion time frame as they were. "Naruto-kun isn't in a position that will allow him to retaliate. Neji-kun knows this. He'll target a vital point for sure!"

Just when it seemed like the whole thing was over, something astonishing happened.

At first appearing surprised at the sight of the incoming finishing blow, Naruto suddenly smirked at his opponent and, without hesitation, started moving from side to side at high speed. From Neji's point of view the boy's form seemed to blur out when he began to sway, yet still remained in his line of sight throughout the entire motion of his palm strike, so he initially had no cause for concern. However, just as his hand closed the final distance between them, the jinchuriki's body started to fade, becoming transparent before vanishing completely like a ghost dissipating on the wind.

In the end Neji's palm strike ended up slamming into the trunk of the tree his opponent was pinned against, splintering the wood and plowing a decent dent into it. The force of the blow reverberated throughout the entire area.

While the power behind the attack was impressive, what shocked everyone and Neji the most was that his final attack didn't hit its intended target. Instead, the Hyuuga's eyes widened in shock when he realized he missed his opponent completely, who just up and vanished from right out under him.

"What?! It can't be! I thought I had him trapped! Where is he?" Even with his Byakugan blazing, Neji had completely lost sight of the blonde. His hand quickly withdrawing from its strike, Neji scanned the entire area quickly for any sign of his target before spotting a yellow blur darting out from his doejutsu's only blind spot. The sight alarmed him greatly, prompting him to react instantly. "Where did he go?" He spun around, stunned gaze showing his disbelief when they finally landed back on his opponent materializing out of the air directly over his shoulder. "What did he do?!"

He turned around just in time to see a fist flying straight at him… and reacted instinctively.

The sound of a gunshot rang out as both Naruto and Neji's heads were blasted back from two hits striking them in the face simultaneously. While the jinchuriki was hit in the cheek by a palm strike that came from below, his fist managed to slam clean across Neji's face over the Hyuuga's shoulder at the exact same time. Apparently the Hyuuga was able to react fast enough to chuck a counter to his counter, and even though the blonde's attack landed first by a fraction of a second, the damage was even. Blood flew from both their mouths when the attacks crashed across their expressions and sent both opponents staggering backwards.

Both Tenten and Lee looked on in shock when they saw the two fighters stumble away from each other, with Tayuya also showing surprise at the unexpected turn with her eyes widening and hair rising ever so slightly. The sound of the simultaneous hits ringing out sent chills down their spines.

"Whoa! A dual exchange?" Lee exclaimed.

"But who got hit worse?" Tenten asked, gritting her teeth when she watched them come to a stop.

Looking at each other in astonishment for a moment, Naruto smiled brightly and stepped out of his fighting stance, wiping the blood from his mouth. "Good fight. You had me on the ropes there for a second."

Neji frowned when he saw his opponent disengage and deactivated his Byakugan. He shut his right eye tightly from the damage he'd caught and heaved a sign, after which he then folded his arms. He faced the blonde with a serious expression, who returned it with a beaming look and a twinkle in his iris.

"Man, you're way stronger than Sasuke and Kiba. I didn't think there was a person in this village who could keep up with me, but then you jumped in," Naruto chirped.

Realizing the fight was over, Lee and Tenten quickly trotted over along with Tayuya, all of them coming to stand beside the pair as Neji stared back at his cheerful opponent.

The Hyuuga furrowed his brow. "What kind of fighting style do you use? I've never encountered anyone who used a martial arts form quite like yours before and I've fought many. It was completely unorthodox." Unreadable too. Neji realized part way through their duel that he was unable to gauge the distance between himself and his opponent properly, or time any of his attacks effectively because of his foe's strange dodging techniques. Was this due to the boy continuously shifting from orthodox to southpaw, or was it his swaying?

Either way, Neji was unable to land any of his blows until the very end and he only managed that because he threw that last palm strike out of pure reflex.

Naruto grinned sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head. "It's my own fighting style." He saw Neji's eyes widen. "I made it myself from watching others practice and getting into a lot of fights on the streets when I was younger. I was always causing problems for others and attracting a lot of unwanted attention from unsavory characters, so most of the time I couldn't help it. It just sort of happened."

"I see," Neji nodded in understanding before putting on somewhat of a smile despite the pain on the right side of his face. "You have quite a bit of talent in you. I never would have guessed…"

"I wouldn't really call it talent," Naruto chuckled nervously, "It's more like wild instinct honed from years of practice. Back in the academy I was always called a delinquent and a dead last because I failed almost every test that was given to me and kept screwing up the Bunshin no Jutsu. Everyone kept away from me too because they thought I was a bad influence, so… I decided to change all that." He looked up at the curious expression of Neji, who was listening to him intently just like Tenten and Lee. "I worked hard to get where I am and changed my approach. I didn't want to get left behind or be treated like I didn't matter, so I got better at what I did and passed with a smile. I nearly killed myself getting as good as I am today."

Surprised at hearing the back-story from the boy in front of him and upon processing all of the information shared, Neji then glanced over at Lee and Tenten. When he saw their bewildered eyes meet his, he looked away shamefacedly. It became glaringly obvious to him that he had misjudged his opponent earlier, called him and his friend commoners and people not worthy of his time, and looked down on them as lesser beings.

He also called Naruto a failure and openly decreed that he would lose to him no matter what.

But this boy, having admitted to being a failure in the academy, a dead last and a slacker, managed to trade blows evenly with him, a genius and possibly the strongest Genin in the village. The fight Neji had just had and in light of this new information took all of the beliefs he held beforehand and shoved them right back into his face, like a second, metaphorical punch. It was almost like the blow he received from his opponent woke him up, showing him something beyond the philosophy he had previously grilled himself into believing whole-heartedly and, ultimately, blinded him.

Seeing Neji have circles ran around him and take a hit was an entirely new thing for Lee and Tenten, the former especially who looked his friend over before turning to look back at Naruto with a fond and appraising gaze. Upon hearing his story of how he'd been the academy's loser and dead last had the fuzzy browed boy suck in air and straighten up. He then bowed deeply to the jinchuriki, an action that got Naruto to jump in surprise.

"You were splendid, Naruto-kun!" Lee exclaimed, a huge grin framing his face when he looked up. He then had the right sense of mind to appear surprised when he remembered his job from before. "Oh wait… I was supposed to be refereeing this battle, but I was so shocked by its outcome that I was unable to comment on it at all!" Blinking, he then looked back at the jinchuriki with a determined glare, "IT IS A DRAW!"

"A draw?" Tenten scoffed, looking at her shining teammate in amusement. "That clearly wasn't a draw, Lee. For the first time ever I was able to watch Neji get his arrogant face smashed in by someone who was younger than him and wasn't our teacher." Even though it was technically a dual exchange, in reality it was a big win for Naruto.

In a single moment Naruto was able to show Neji that he shouldn't look down on others on first glance and label them as people beneath him. He viewed Naruto as a failure; someone who would lose against him in an instant. But instead, the boy was able to out run, out maneuver and probably win even in a simultaneous exchange. The way Neji was cringing under a bruised face and how his opponent was grinning brightly like he didn't get hit proved that.

Hopefully this outcome wouldn't screw up their team dynamics, but looking at the Hyuuga's face and how he was keeping his attention elsewhere didn't fill Tenten with much confidence.

Naruto grinned nervously at the beaming Lee and nodded to him, "I-I'm glad you liked the fight, Bushy Brows."

"I most certainly did! It was so passionate and awe inspiring, the thought of it makes me want to work even harder to become even stronger!" Lee shouted, holding his fists up excitedly. "You gave my rival such a hard time and fought him squarely on his own turf! You truly are a strong person, Naruto-kun! Please… allow me to make you my rival too!"

Appearing bewildered at first, after managing to process the boy's exuberant exclamations, Naruto then grinned back at the boisterous individual and nodded firmly. "Sure thing Lee. I'm always looking for new challenges to test my skills against. If your teammate is this good, then I really want to see what you can do too." The excited expression worn by said energetic individual grew in intensity as both parties exchanged smiles. However, before they could take their stand-off any further Naruto suddenly looked over his shoulder and into the trees. It was only for a moment, so nobody noticed his averted gaze when he turned back to face the boy in green with a slightly smaller smile, "But I've got to get going now. We can have a spar some other time, okay?"

"Yosh! Then I will be looking forward to it with great anticipation, Naruto-kun!" Lee stated with his trademark salute.

Giving the boy a thumbs-up and a courteous nod of thanks to Neji who returned it in kind, Naruto then turned to Tenten to see the girl recoil a little when his intense gaze fell upon her. The jinchuriki beamed and nodded politely in her direction, "Thanks for showing me your training spot. I really enjoyed meeting you guys."

Gulping, Tenten gave him back a weak smile of her own, "You're welcome, Naruto."

With a final nod and a wave, Naruto then turned back to Tayuya who was waiting patiently with her arms folded. When he set his attention onto her, the girl smirked at him before leading the two out of the area. They both waved back at Team Gai, all of whom saw them off with varying smiles and interest.

"Hard fight?" the red head asked upon looking the boy over and getting far enough away from the older team.

"More like a scary one," Naruto exclaimed, directing the girl wordlessly along the quickest path out of there. "Seriously, that Neji had a really dangerous style and was strong to boot. I could actually feel the chakra he was shooting off with every strike he made. He wasn't going for my head or anything like that; the guy was literally aiming for my organs. There was no way I was going to let any of those attacks land on my body, even if I was to guard." He then winced a little. "That last hit to the face really stung. I think he cut through some of the muscle fibers with that blow."

"Smart. But that's how you usually fight isn't it? You either keep your distance through excessive dodging and counters or you get in close and slug it out with them," Tayuya pointed while glancing back at the training field they were parting from and seeing the entirety of Team Gai formed up in the center. "That jerk was a sharp one. Normally you would have had him in the first few hits, but he was keeping you on your toes."

"Yeah. I needed to get a feel for his speed and rhythm first before trying anything," Naruto said while rubbing his knuckles. "His type are usually the most difficult to deal with. He's got a strong body from training, good instincts, a keen eye, a powerful kekkei genkai and great control. I've never fought anyone like him before; it was great."

"I'll bet he's never fought anyone like you before either," Tayuya replied with a smirk, wrapping an arm around his and pulling him to her roughly. "That was your advantage. The guy must have been so used to fighting opponents with more direct and textbook fighting styles that he wasn't prepared to face your whacked up taijutsu style. That and he underestimated you all the way through to the end. You must have caught him completely by surprise."

"True. But I don't intend to stop where I am with it. Oh no," Naruto said with a shake of his head. "I want to become stronger… much stronger than that. I'll keep working hard and become the strongest shinobi in this village, with the best fighting style and the best ninjutsu combinations." He slammed his fist into his open palm. "Believe it."

Gazing at him fondly, Tayuya then grinned and jabbed him in the side. This definitely got the boy's attention and he glanced at the girl curiously. "Hey, back there when you stopped me, it was because you wanted to teach the guy a lesson yourself, right?"

Giving the girl a thoughtful look, Naruto then looked back up, feigning ignorance. "Whatever do you mean, Tayuya-chan?"

"Other people may think they know you well enough to read your responses, but I know when you want to get a point across through action rather than through words," the red head said, leaning over and kissing him on the cheek. "You sly fox you; always pulling impossible wins out of your ass. I would have beaten the snot out of that guy myself, if I didn't realize he would have pummeled me into submission in the first few seconds."

Naruto's grin widened as the two hit the trail, quickly finding their way back onto the main highway on route to the village. After the whole ordeal they'd just been through, he desperately wanted a nice hot bath. Finding the closest sign, the pair turned all eyes toward the path ahead and made for the hot springs.

Back at Team Gai's training area, the entire squad waited until Naruto and Tayuya were well out of ear shot and sight before turning to each other. While Neji kept uncomfortably quiet with his eyes averted, Tenten and Lee managed to recover enough to speak level with one another.

"That was some show," the kunoichi breathed, looking over at the Hyuuga, "You okay?"

"I'm fine, Tenten," Neji replied, closing his eyes. Even though his head was still throbbing and his bruise had started to swell, he still managed to hold it together. "I just… need some time to think."

"S-Sure," the girl smiled, giving him a considerate gaze. "Take all the time you need."

"Yosh! But what a thrilling bout that was!" Lee cheered, slamming his fists together excitedly. "Naruto-kun was really strong! It was like he was youth and strength personified! If he was the dead last in his class and was able to match a genius blow for blow through hard work and training alone, then I must work even harder to become as strong as him!"

Without a doubt it had been a pretty intense battle. With Lee cheering all sorts of nonsense over it and Neji allowing himself some time to his own thoughts in regards to his outlook on life, Tenten soon found herself staring intently in the direction the pair had gone off in with a raised eyebrow.

"Naruto, huh?" the kunoichi thought before giving a smile and subtly clenching her fists. "Man… I hate to admit it, but even he had me fired up back there. Wow." A light coloring of red appeared on her cheeks when she thought back to the boy's wicked smirk and dashing grin when he faced her, her mind occupying itself with images of the interesting youngster and his magnetic personality.

After which Tenten quickly shook her head and dismissed her train of thought when her memories unexpectedly led in to some strange after images.

Unknown to most of the team save Neji, high up in the canopy where Naruto had momentarily turned his gaze toward while speaking with Lee, Gai stood close at hand leaning against the trunk with his arms folded. Having been there since the beginning of Neji's match, the man wisely chose to hold his ground and watch from afar to see how the fight would turn out. While initially expecting an overwhelming victory in his team's resident genius, he was later incredibly shocked when he saw the tides shift against the Hyuuga, who took a big hit from a boy a year younger than him.

The skill the newcomer displayed and instincts, it was almost unfathomable, almost unnatural in comparison. It was also the first time Gai had ever seen his student take a hit in close-combat; his specialty no less.

After watching the blonde leave with his companion beside him, the Jonin then brought his hand up to his chin and rubbed it thoughtfully. Upon seeing the mood improve down below with Lee celebrating at the conclusion of the fight, Neji left to his quiet soul searching and Tenten also expressing her own enthusiasm in her own way, a smile came to the man's face as he looked in the direction the rookies had gone.

"Naruto. If I'm not mistaken he's one of Kakashi's boys. Though he may not look the part, it seems that my own eternal rival has found himself a really interesting apprentice." A very Gai-like smile appeared on his face as he contemplated the matter. "Fascinating."

XXX

Two weeks later…

"You guys have grown a lot since I first met you, and each of you has shown me how hard you're willing to work to complete an assignment," Kakashi spoke, addressing each and all three of his students who were lined up in front of him on the edge of the same clearing they did the bell test. Seeing their expectant faces fixed squarely on him, the silver haired Jonin nodded. "Now is the time that I help speed up your growth and give you something even more challenging to work on, which is why I called all three of you here today."

A smile came to Sasuke's expression while eager grins spread across Sakura and Naruto's faces, both of whom leaned forward in anticipation.

"S-So… what's this training you have planned for us, Kakashi-sensei?" the kunoichi asked.

"Yeah! Yeah! Tell us! Tell us!" Naruto encouraged while jumping on the spot.

Hearing their collective enthusiasm had Kakashi beaming, "We, by which I mean the three of you… are going to climb a tree."

Initially expecting something a lot more exciting to roll out of the man's mouth, the three teens deadpanned at his lack of suspense before looking up at the trees standing behind the Jonin. After staring at the unmoving towers for a solid minute, they then looked back at the Cyclops to see he was still staring back at them warmly. Frowns then came upon all three of their faces when they finally processed the words Kakashi had spoken to them, and they each responded in their own respective manners.

"That's very funny, Kakashi-sensei. I almost forgot to laugh," Naruto exclaimed sarcastically, a dark chuckle ending his sentence.

"We already know how to climb trees," Sakura stated a-matter-of-factly.

"Seriously?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

It was the name of the exercise that got to them. Sure it was judging the book by its cover, but how else could they have reacted? The task their instructor had planned for them didn't sound like anything special. In fact, it sounded like their teacher was taking them back to the basics that they learned way earlier in the academy.

However, they were soon to find out that this was not to be.

"Oh, this isn't anything like all those tests you performed back in grade school. Your next task is a little more complicated than that," Kakashi replied brightly. Forming a contemporary hand seal, the man stood in place for a few seconds before starting towards the tree at a casual walking pace. He was watched closely by his still silent group of students as he approached the trunk and placed his foot firmly against it.

That's where all the normal stuff of the day ended and extraordinary started to take place when the Jonin began marching up the side of the tree like he was walking on solid ground. Continuing to give the middle finger to gravity, he reached the first branch up and walked out to its center on its underside, where he then hung like a bat with his hands in his pockets

How this was actually possible the kids had no idea, but after seeing it the three youngsters were immediately in awe. If they could see it, then there was no way they couldn't believe it.

"And you guys had your doubts about me," Kakashi chirped with an eye smile, watching as their expressions switched from astonished to bashful, with the trio quickly looking away scratching their cheeks or kicking at the ground. Satisfied that he had managed to get through to them, the Jonin then pulled out three kunai and tossed them at the ground to land at their feet. "The point of this exercise is simple. The main purpose of this training is to accumulate the right amount of molded chakra to the right location of the body. This is difficult even for well-trained ninja. Since the amount of chakra used for tree climbing is quite subtle and the most difficult place to accumulate chakra is said to be behind the feet, getting this exercise right is going to take a lot of work. In other words, if you are able to master this, you will be able to learn any kind of technique. In theory, anyway."

Sakura's expression blinked into realization and she dropped her fist into her open palm, "Oh, I get it!" She then bent over and picked up one of the kunai, just as Naruto and Sasuke did. "The second purpose of this exercise is maintaining the correct amount of molded chakra so that we can stick to the surface of the tree, right sensei?"

The Jonin nodded, "Took the words right out of my mouth, Sakura-kun." He then pointed at the branch he was hanging from for emphasis. "I'm holding the chakra I have molded at my feet as we speak. Most of the time shinobi mold their chakra during battle and when in that situation, it is even more difficult to maintain the consistency. It may sound easy on paper, but it is best that you learn this exercise with your bodies. It won't only strengthen your understanding of chakra control but it will also strengthen your control and your chakra levels as well."

"So… what do we do with these, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked, holding up the knife in his hand while Sasuke twirled his on his finger absently.

Their teacher directed their attention to the trees in front of them, "Use it to mark where you are able to climb with your current ability. With every attempt you make try to create a new mark above the old one. It will help you keep track of your progress." He then raised a finger, "Oh, and since you haven't done this before you may want a running start. Remember to concentrate your chakra at your feet and to hold it."

Without needing to be told twice, the three of them did as they were instructed, molded their chakra at their feet, and took off at their respective trees. Naruto made it to his and started to climb with Sasuke following afterwards a close second. The latter made it quite a ways before the bark exploded underneath his feet, forcing him to back flip off and land before he fell. The Uchiha glared up at the trunk in frustration.

"Shit. I didn't know maintaining a constant amount of chakra was this difficult. If the chakra is too strong I get repelled."

CRACK! "GAAAAHHH!"

Hearing a scream, Sasuke panned over in surprise. When he glanced toward his rival's tree he saw that Naruto had made it a few meters further, but instead of getting blasted back or slipping off the tree from lack of control, his leg had actually gone straight through and into the tree. Now he was stuck there waving his hands about frantically while trying to pull himself out.

"Help! I'm stuck!" Naruto shouted, grabbing his leg, "Damn it! That wasn't supposed to happen!"

Sasuke sweat dropped as he watched the blonde try to yank his foot out. "If you use WAY too much that happens. The attraction becomes so great you create a vacuum effect and you get sucked straight into the surface." Guess it was only possible if you were a chakra monster like Naruto. He hypothesized that if you maintained a lesser amount then you wouldn't be able to stick to the tree and you would simply slip and fall.

A grim prospect, but the prodigy got the gist of it.

Kakashi chuckled a little after watching Naruto finally pull himself out of the trunk and grab onto the tree in the conventional manner, panting slightly before marking his place… though in light of the recent event it didn't seem necessary. "Well, there's the difference between Sasuke and Naruto."

"Hey, this is easy!" Sakura's voice came from above, drawing the boys' attention to her to see she had made it all the way to the topmost visible branch of her tree. That was a full two stories above the ground. She stuck her tongue out cutely when their eyes fell on her.

Naruto blinked before grinning, "Wow! Nice going, Sakura-chan!"

"Hmm, it seems that my team's kunoichi is the best at controlling her chakra," Kakashi exclaimed before glancing towards the boy still hanging off of his tree and towards the one crouching down below staring up enviously. "Perhaps Sakura-chan is closer to becoming Hokage then a certain ambitious someone on my team… and to think that I also had such high hopes for the 'powerful' Uchiha Clan as well." He saw the jinchuriki hop down from his trunk and Sasuke glare back at his before starting to run up it again, choosing to ignore Sakura's progress in favor of his exercise.

Sakura gave her teacher a look conveying complete and utter dismay. "What? Why'd you say that? Now he's going to hate me!" Her shoulders quickly hunched in a clear sign of displeasure as her cheeks puffed out indignantly. The inner personality inside her head nodded in agreement. "Sometimes you say too much, Kakashi-sensei."

Naruto grinned and twirled the kunai he had on his finger before locking it in a tight grip, "Yosh! I'm going to get this exercise down before the sun sets! Believe it!" And with that, he along with Sasuke took off towards their trees while Sakura hopped down from hers to practice it some more. This time however, after getting up to the point where he got stuck, Naruto's grip suddenly vanished and he dropped like a dead-weight, hitting the ground with a dull and very hilarious thud.

Sprawled out on the grass with a bruise forming on his cranium, the boy suddenly heard a familiar animal chirping incessantly from the branches above and looked up to see Swift, his longtime training companion, visibly laughing her ass off. The way she was chirping as if struggling for air was a clear indication of what a bird genuinely looked like cackling, the sight of which got Naruto to shake his fist up at her. "Damn it! You were watching me, Swift-chan?!"

A much deeper snickering could be heard somewhere in the back of his mind; Naruto developing a tick mark when he realized that the Kyuubi was also laughing at him. "That was priceless brat. Did you hear the sound you made when you hit the ground? It was like a bag of flower being dropped."

Naruto lifted his jacket and glared at his stomach, "Don't you start, you big ball of fluff!"

As odd as it was to see their teammate cursing at both a bird and his own stomach, his teammates let his occasional weirdness slide and continued on with their exercises.

And from there the long battle began. Returning to earth shortly afterwards to observe from a more comfortable vantage point, Kakashi watched carefully as each of his students proceeded to push themselves to their limits.

OOO

Meanwhile…

In another country, deep within the catacombs of a large underground complex beneath a heavy forest of evergreens, a sinister figure sat looking over the magnificence of his latest research. Inside a dark room sitting in a large chair with no outstanding features on it whatsoever, a man with long black hair, pale skin and wearing beige battle robes and a thick purple rope wrapped firmly around his waist, smirked widely as he watched one of his many yet scarcely seen workmen scurry around collecting data from the surrounding tanks.

The individual moving about was a masked man wearing a headband with a musical note on it, aligning him with the Village Hidden in the Sound. Also dressed in a white uniform sort of resembling a hazmat suit, he was currently moving across from spot to spot looking into a series of green tubes lined up inside the room. Each glass case was filled with an animal of some kind, one per enclosure, with each creature bearing the markings of some kind of infection.

But what kind of infection left a freaky, black tattoo pattern over their bodies resembling either crosshatching, flames, spirals, lines, or other patterns like it was taken off of Halloween wrapping paper?

The only people aware of the true purpose of this room and its contents were of course the man in the seat, and the few people closest to him.

Speaking of which, one of those abovementioned closest people was just entering the room in the background right now.

Glancing over his shoulder, the pale-skinned man smiled, "Kimimaro-kun."

"You called for me, Orochimaru-sama?" the boy with white hair, ivory skin, red markings on his face, and wearing a white robe and dark pants asked as he stepped into his master's presence.

"Yes. I did," the Sannin replied, gesturing for the young adult to stand to the side where he could see him. "How are you feeling? Have you fully recovered from your unfortunate illness yet?"

The stoic shinobi looked down at his hand and flexed his fingers in a testing manner. His expression did not waver nor did his eyes give any tells, not until his face turned back toward the still seated individual and he nodded. "My muscles and reflexes are responding well. The medicine Kabuto was able to acquire from his source and gave to me forced most of the virus out of my system. However, it will take a few more days till I am back up to full strength." A small smile came to his face. "I am excited. Soon I will be of use to you once again, Orochimaru-sama."

The Sannin smiled gleefully. "That's so wonderful to hear. I look forward to seeing you in action again." He then lowered his head and cast an eerie shadow across his eyes, "However, I'm afraid that a certain matter has arisen that I've been forced to cut your recovery period short."

At first confused by the man's sudden statement, Kimimaro quickly dispersed with any and all bewilderment and placed his hand over his chest, "I will do everything that I can for you with whatever strength that I can muster. No task is too great for me, even in sickness."

Orochimaru acknowledged the boy's eagerness proudly, "I need for you to run a small errand for me to the Land of Waves. One of the laboratories I had moved there a few years ago has gone silent and I'm growing a little bit concerned for all my little experiments I left in the hands of the facility's caretaker. I would like for you to check up on Amachi to see if he's doing alright and to have him send over the rest of the research he promised me for this year."

Hearing this, Kimimaro bowed low to the pale shinobi with his gaze averted. "I shall leave at once, Orochimaru-sama." He remained in that position for the next minute awaiting the man's go sign, only to feel the man's hand rest upon his head. The feeling of contact had the white haired boy open his eyes in surprise.

As if feeling his aura, Orochimaru beamed down at his subordinate as he slowly straightened up to face him once more. "You are such a good and strong child, Kimimaro-kun. I look forward to the day when you are back up to full health and are able to continue serving me like you once did. It would do me great honor to integrate you into my body so that together, we'll be able to reach that state of pure and utter perfection, as one."

Kimimaro stared silently at the man with shimmering eyes for a moment before smiling back at him warmly, "The honor would be all mine, master."

XXX

Two days later…

Training field three…

While Sakura had been running up and down her tree like she was a mouse on a wheel, clearly having this exercise down pat before either of the boys, there had been a varying of success between both Sasuke and Naruto over the couple of days following the start of their exercise.

Since the beginning the Uchiha had continued to attack the trunk without mercy, running up to his best mark and leaving a new one a few inches above that and the many ones to follow. Sure he fell and crashed once or twice, but the need to succeed and his goal sitting at the very top of the tree pushed the boy on. Again and again Sasuke went, punching one to two more holes into the side whilst trying to memorize and get a feel for the consistency, and maintain it. The harder he pushed the more he sweated, clearly showing that even a great genius like himself had his limitations. His progress went steady for the next couple of days to follow, during which time he showed incredible improvement.

Naruto on the other hand was the most sporadic in terms of progress. Sure the kid attacked the tree with the same amount of vigor as his rival, but the problem with him was that unlike the genius, he either used too much chakra and ended up punching a hole straight through the tree from the pressure of his footedness or he ended up not molding enough and wound up sliding several feet back down the line before falling altogether. Sure it gave him a good idea of how the exercise was supposed to work; he was just destroying a tree in the process. At least his height increased at the same rate as Sasuke's and his results were in keeping with his reputation as being a hurricane of destruction. That had to count for something, right?

Eventually the blonde got tired of busting through the trunk and tumbling down the tree for the first day and the day after, and so by the third around mid-day he quickly found himself crouching at its base and glaring up at the obstacle stubbornly. For the next hour or so after that he sat there glaring up at the towering pine while Sasuke marched on, doing everything he could to catch up to his rival and surpass him.

The thought of using shadow clones to accelerate his practice did come to Naruto's mind once or twice, but the boy didn't want to flood the entire area with copies and disrupt everybody else's practice. It would have also been in bad taste toward his friends since it definitely would have been overkill for an exercise all three of them were doing and would have been an unnecessary distraction. No. This was something he felt he needed to figure out by himself and with his own body.

The day eventually pulled around into the early afternoon, where Sakura, after putting so much effort into getting her routine to work naturally in the first day and continuing to do the exercise to work on her stamina over the next days to follow, just couldn't hash it anymore and simply collapsed by her tree utterly spent.

Sprawled out and panting, the girl looked across to see how the others were doing. While Sasuke persisted, Naruto just sat across from his 'opponent' and continued to stare up at it like he was having a showdown with the very inanimate object of nature. It was so like him to fight with everything he deemed remotely suitable to battle, so while it wasn't something new to the group it was still absurdly entertaining from a bystander's point of view. The pink haired kunoichi smiled in amusement as Naruto scowled at his tree and scratched his head, before looking across at Sasuke to see him run up again and, upon getting to his mark, kicked off of it when his consistency wavered.

"I can't believe they're still going at it. Where do those two get all of that energy from?" Sakura wondered while breathing hard. "I'm burned out." She'd been working with Naruto on her taijutsu and stamina ever since her first trial period where she showed a natural talent for hard punching, but even after days of actually putting her back into her training, she was still nowhere near where she wanted to be.

It was crazy.

Following a few more minutes of contemplation, Naruto looked over at Sasuke's tree to see the boy make it to latest mark, which was level with his, leave a scar on the trunk with his kunai before jumping off of it. When the genius landed and looked up, the blonde then came to a sudden and almost stunning realization, and grinned.

Seeing the jinchuriki finally stand after crouching for so long had Sasuke and Sakura's immediate attention, the pair watching curiously as Naruto dropped the knife he was holding before running off. At first they thought he was giving up, but after seeing him take a spot about fifty meters away from his tree, he then turned and ran back, letting out a sort of war cry as he charged his trunk down with a look of pure determination and grit on his face.

"FUCK YEAH!" Naruto cried at the top of his lungs, causing everyone including the present Kakashi to sweat drop at his open use of profanity before watching him sprint up the side of the tree. They continued watching him climb back up to his best mark, where he then blew straight past it and left everyone else far behind when he disappeared into the canopy.

The team on the ground stared after him in shock after seeing him vanish behind the leaves, with Sakura sitting up where she was lying in a clear sign of surprise.

"O-kay… that was weird," the kunoichi murmured.

After several minutes of waiting, they then saw Naruto reappear, but instead of running down the side of the tree, they saw that he was walking. When he eventually strolled to about halfway on the tree trunk, he stopped holding up what looked to be a branch with leaves on it. The blonde grinned as he waved it in front of him.

"So that's how you do it," Naruto exclaimed, turning to look down at his teacher and waving the branch. "Kakashi-sensei! I got it!"

The abovementioned Jonin eye smiled over his favorite orange book, "Well done, Naruto-kun." He watched him jump down and land on the ground. "I'm assuming that that's the top branch?"

"Yup!" the blonde exclaimed, holding the thing in front of him, "Snapped it right off. I could have gotten up there easily using both my hands and feet, but this exercise was just too awesome to pass up!"

Sasuke, feeling both disappointed and a little bit left out, walked over to the blonde with the best straight face he could muster, "Hey uhh… Naruto… h-how did you do that?" Yeah, he clearly wasn't really comfortable with asking his life-long rival how the exercise was done, but from looking at his progress and how successful Sakura was, it couldn't hurt to get a few tips.

Looking across at the raven haired boy, Naruto gave him a friendly smile and pointed up at the tree. "You need to focus and maintain a very small amount of chakra to keep you stuck to the tree. Once you figure it out you have to hold it and from there it's a cake walk. There's nothing else to it." He then looked back at the Uchiha and held up his balled fist, "And remember, once you've concentrated all the chakra you need at your feet, you have to yell a battle cry out as loud as you can to give you an adrenaline boost. It helps to focus your chakra flow around your center and allows it to move to your feet better."

Sakura recoiled a little at that advice and furrowed her brow when she processed his last instruction. "Wait… that doesn't sound right…"

Appearing a little bit apprehensive, the Uchiha looked back up at the tree he'd been fighting for a better part of the past few days before staring back down at the blonde with a frown. "I don't think… really?"

"Yes," Naruto said in a firm voice while nodding. "That's the most important part."

Glaring tightly, Sasuke looked between both the tree and Naruto a few times in thought. After a couple more moments of meditation, much to the bewilderment of Sakura, the Uchiha also moved back for a running start and braced himself. Upon taking a few deep breaths, the genius then crouched low and charged forward, a determined look on his face as he closed in on his 'opponent.'

"FUCK YEAAAHHHH!" the boy screamed even louder than his rival before mounting the tree and beginning to run up it at full speed. Within seconds he blew past his best marker and continued up into the canopy until he was no longer in sight.

Naruto held it in until he saw his rival disappear before he dropped to the ground laughing uproariously. He continued to do so for the next few minutes, being stared at by a very peeved Sakura and a thoroughly amused Kakashi until the Uchiha decided to come strolling back down to ground level.

"That was ridiculous Naruto. Why'd you say that to Sasuke-kun," Sakura asked in a flustered tone.

The boy continued choking on fits of laughter, "Because… it was funny!"

When Sasuke eventually returned from the canopy walking down the side of his tree and saw the jinchuriki on the ground guffawing his ass off, the genius blushed a deep crimson and scowled deeply before stopping in front of the offender; who recovered shortly afterwards to greet his embarrassed teammate.

"You just made that last part up, didn't you?" Sasuke grumbled.

"Well of course I did."

"Why?"

"I just wanted to see you break character for a change since you never do anything remotely hilarious," Naruto chuckled, wiping tears out of his eyes after steadying his breathing. "Man, it was so worth it."

Sasuke glared at him even harder, "I hate you."

"Whatever you say, teme. You know you enjoyed it," Naruto exclaimed before dropping the branch he'd secured beside his kunai and aiming for his tree again. "Come on! Race yah to the top!"

Looking down at the branch he'd acquired on his own run, Sasuke smirked before also tossing it aside and taking a sprinter's start, "Alright."

"Line up with us, Sakura-chan! Let's race it together!" Naruto called across to the girl, whom was still sitting in her place beside her tree looking distraught.

When the girl heard her name called out and saw both boys smiling at her, Sakura stammered a few times before securing a smirk of her own. Dusting her clothes down and making herself look as presentable as possible, she then jogged over to take a spot beside Naruto, where all three of them then prepped and readied themselves for action. They then looked towards their teacher standing on the side of the clearing, who continued to watch them in interest.

"Sensei?"

Kakashi eye smiled, raising his hand above his head, "Ready…" He saw them all brace themselves and raise their hides. "GO!"

All three members of the team then took off from their spots and ran straight at their trees before sprinting up the towering pillars at full speed. After disappearing in a cloud of dust leaving their sensei to observe from ground level, the small shadow that had been watching the group from behind a nearby tree, belonging to a very familiar Hinata Hyuuga, pulled back a little and smiled fondly.

"Naruto-kun… he's doing so well."

It was her off day and one of the many days she was able to find some personal time to herself. Since everybody else was busy but still hanging around the village, Hinata had chosen to spend this period watching her crush training from afar. It was a practice she'd been doing for a while now, all in an effort to learn from the boy and see what made him as strong as he was. There was no questioning the amount of inspiration she got simply observing him.

The team didn't even know the kunoichi from Team 8 was even there as they practiced late into the afternoon, running up and down their trees before eventually calling it a day.

Kakashi couldn't hide the smile on his face as they made their way back to the house, watching Sakura fawn over Sasuke at their success while at the same time Naruto engaged them in conversation, bringing bright expressions to all their faces.

"They're all growing up so quickly."

XXX

Three days later…

"Ready or not, Swift-chan! Here I come!" Naruto exclaimed, springing across from one roof top to another in pursuit of his old training companion.

After another long day was spent with his team training under Kakashi's supervision, who had again taken the liberty of helping them out in some of the areas where they were weakest, including Sakura's stamina and combat effectiveness, Sasuke's coordination within a group and Naruto's vulnerability to really strong genjutsu and his speed, the latter being at the blonde's behest of course since he wanted to get even faster, the Jonin then decided that it was probably best that the group take a small break. Not wanting to burn his entire team out with too much material and back to back missions, Kakashi felt it would be good for all of them to take a few days off so that they could enjoy themselves with the money they'd earned and perhaps think about the work he'd set out for them.

Not necessarily do, just think.

While Sakura and Sasuke went off to do their own things on one of their first days off approved by their sensei, whatever they were, Naruto decided to live it up by catching up with some old friends around town. This was why immediately upon waking to the morning sun and having a nice breakfast with Tayuya, the boy ran off to find Swift-chan and partake in an activity he hadn't done in a long, LONG while…

Chasing her through Konoha's busy streets.

Just like all the other times the two had gotten together on one of their epic showdowns; it began with a surprise attack. Sitting concealed inside of a park oak tree, Naruto waited for the familiar tell of red to flash by him before springing forth from his hiding place and chasing after it. Like a cheetah flying across plains, but instead of grasslands it was treetops and buildings, the blonde ran after the small, darting bird.

Having not lost any of her moves and speed in the past few months as indicated by how she would often perform an acrobatic loop in mid-air, the mighty swallow Swift led Naruto through some of the toughest and harshest obstacle courses ever conceived by man. Bounding across wide alleys, flying through gaps in fences, sliding through trees, across wires, and springing off of walls, Naruto and Swift engaged in another battle of quick wits, instincts, reflexes and sheer speed. Anyone watching would only see an orange blur flying through the air chasing after a red speck, moving at an equally fast speed.

This comparison was most noticeable when Naruto suddenly had to make ground fall if only for a moment, landing dead center in the middle of the main road directly in front of Shikamaru and Choji, before immediately springing after his opponent when she took off into the upper stories again. Both boys, having been engaged in casual conversation while strolling along, only had a fraction of a second to identify the thing that landed in front of them before he suddenly vanished in a flash.

With a chip hanging from his mouth, the civilian dressed Choji shook his head in bewilderment as he tried to come to terms with what he just saw. "What the heck was that?"

"A mysterious orange blur?" Shikamaru tried to answer, but turned out to be more question than answer.

Back up in the upper parts of the city, the chase continued.

Steadily reaching towards its climax, Swift glided across a stretch of roof, continuing on course with Naruto just inches from her tail before she sharply changed directions. Performing a Star Fox 64 turn, she flew back in the direction she'd come, darting right past the blonde's shoulder when he snapped out to grab her, only to miss. Slamming himself into the roof head first, the boy tumbled and slid on all fours to a stop, spinning around and chasing after the swallow again as fast as he could.

"Nice move! But it'll take more than that to lose me this time, birdie!" Naruto exclaimed, dust kicking up when he vanished into a speed zone all of his own. "I'm three times faster than what I used to be!"

Swift responded by kicking it up a notch, moving into practically supersonic speed and beginning to weave around antennas, chimneys and water towers. Naruto stuck to her as best as he could, like a monkey springing off of every available elevation that stood in his path.

Eventually their chase led to a storage house behind the main postal service, where Swift suddenly darted straight across a lower line of roofs two stories below her sitting over parked, horse-drawn carriages of various sizes and filled with a wide assortment of goods for transportation. Taking aim as he approaches the end of the building he had been chasing the bird over as she continues on a linear path, the boy grins and without a second thought or care, leaps straight after her in a stunning long jump. In the blink of an eye, his body was right on top of hers.

"BUSTED!" Naruto's hands snap out and clamps down on the bird, with Swift letting out a shrill cry of surprise when she's snatched right out of the air. The blonde laughs triumphantly as he falls towards the roofs over the line of horses, landing gracefully on one foot…

Only to have the area he lands on cave in and causing his body to go straight through the tiles, straight through the tarp roof of a carriage and straight into a stack of crates. He smashes into them, bounces off and slams into the carriage floor on his back. Swift still in his hands, the jinchuriki barely manages to regain his bearings until the stacks of crates surrounding collapse on top of him, burying him under tons of wood and barrels. A loud clatter echoes out from the carriage, and several seconds after the noises fade, the chaos was followed by a single, muffled exclamation.

"Ow."

"What was that?" a new voice suddenly speaks up and the sound of footsteps outside enters the picture. Poking his head into view, a man dressed in green, courier shinobi uniform sticks his head through the entrance and looks around. Because the cart was so tall and the man was so focused on the barrels and crates inside the wagon, he doesn't take notice that one of the canvas sheets above had come loose.

A moment later, another person appears, this time a tradesman dressed in travel gear, poncho and a wide-brimmed straw hat covering most of the upper parts of his face, "Something wrong?"

The courier ninja pointed inside the wagon, "Some of the crates up at the front fell."

"Ah, that stuff. Don't worry. It's all just tools and heavy-duty parts. Nothing to worry about."

"Oh, good," the courier ninja exclaimed before pulling his head back out, scratching it. "Wonder what caused it to collapse though."

"I think Bessy is just getting restless," the man in the hat replied, nodding towards the horse drawing the wagon. They saw the animal kick at the ground and whine, showing them that it was ready to move. "Anyway, does all the paperwork check out?"

"Yeah. You're all good here," the courier shinobi replied, looking down at his clipboard and checking the signatures. "So you're making a delivery for Gato Shipping and Transport? That's interesting."

"Uh-huh. The man writes big checks. How can anybody say no to him?" the man chuckled. "I've done a lot of odd jobs for his company in the past, but I've never met with the guy directly; just his staff and the people who work for him."

"I heard he was having some problems recently over there in Wave country… something about a uhh… demon… sea monster? You know anything that?"

"Nope. It's probably just some silly rumor… a story told by sailors and fishermen to spook the locals," the tradesmen replied with a careless shrug. He then nodded towards the cart, "All I care about is taking this stuff down to the bay and getting it across to the main warehouse. I'm catching a ferry to the other side and back; free of charge. There's also some stuff I have to pick up over there and they want me to do it direct."

"They must really like you if they're asking you to personally oversee the transaction," the courier exclaimed, pulling the extra documents from his clipboard and handing them back over. He also ripped off another slip and handed it to the delivery man. "Show this to the guards up front and they'll let you through."

"Will do," the trader replied brightly, straightening out all of his paperwork and bowing. "Thank you kindly."

After a parting wave, the tradesmen hopped onto his carriage and kicked his horse into life. Slowly but surely, the transport was steered out of the loading bay, across the courtyard, and began making its way down the main highway to the front gate. Once the cart and its driver was out of sight of the quad, the courier ninja was about to head back inside until he noticed a bright patch of light on the floor and looked up.

When he did, he saw the space in the tiled pagoda above and raised an eyebrow. "Why's there a hole in the ceiling?"

Just as instructed, the man drawing the wagon presented his paperwork to the shinobi guarding the entrance and he was let through without any fuss.

Thanks to this, the Chunin watching over the main entrance had no idea that the man was also transporting something else of value with him that was in no way related to the crates he was taking to Wave.

Like all those years before, Swift-chan flew out of the gap in the boxes and landed on top of a nearby barrel, looking down to see the unconscious Naruto's fingers twitching from being buried under several hundred kilos of cargo. A low groan emitted from the pile as the carriage trundled along the bumpy road, causing the bird to shake her head and look towards the closed door of the wagon worryingly.

Ruffling her feathers, the bird spoke words in her language that could only be translated to one thing.

"Here we go again…"

The way she said it though sounded like she had this planned from the get-go. Weird…

TO BE CONTINUED…

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Author's Note: This chapter was heaps fun to write and I hope you all enjoyed it.

Due to realizing how cliché I wrote the first version of the Wave Arc exactly like before, I had to rewrite it and therefore am changing all of the chapters I have written already. So, guess what everyone, you're in for a new and original Wave Arc from yours truly that still borders the series you're familiar with, but have changed it to my liking.

I hope you all liked this chapter and noticed the development of all the characters in it. Sakura, Sasuke and Naruto's steady progress as a group, the bickering between rivals and banter, Naruto finally getting to the Kyuubi and developing their relationship from one-sided to friendly, where they aren't able to fight in sync yet, but are still able to trade shots at one another and argue. There still needs to be a lot of growth in that area. Kakashi is actually training his team, which is good, and all the other little things.

Also, a couple of things. A few of you may notice this, but I was inspired to write Neji and Naruto's first fight based off of the fight between Vorg and Wally from Hajime no Ippo, with Neji being the genius Vorg and Naruto being the wild Wally. Neji, of course, this being the first time anyone has ever staggered him and showed him up, had a bit of sense knocked into him, which of course will get him to think about his prejudices and how he judges people. He's sort of like Miyata in a way with that suave attitude, except with the ridiculous belief in faith. Hopefully that punch shook him up a little.

I look forward to where you guys will think I'm taking this now and hope you look forward to the next chapters.