Naruto: Alone

by Arganaut

The meeting between the council and Sarutobi did not go as planned.... how will Naruto survive growing up without the help of the Third?

20. Chapter 20

Naruto Alone

Hey there folks, Arganaut with the next chapter of Naruto Alone heading your way. Now then, a couple people have been asking me when the 'filler' arc was going to be over and they could get back to the series plot of the story. In a sense this chapter is kind of the end of the 'fun' material as we get back into plot construction, so I would recommend people read this chapter so that in the upcoming plot line you aren't lost.

Also, as a bit of a side-note, I've opened up a forum to help keep in contact with you lot, so do stop by sometime.

Anyway, that's all I have to say for now so let's get to responding to the reviews:

Doctor Yami- You got that right.

firelordeg- Thanks, but mind telling me what a.s.a.l.a. means?

KaliAnn- Thanks for the review, and welcome, I believe this is the first time I've heard from you. I'm glad you liked the chapter, and its good to hear that you enjoyed the part with the Aburame: I'm trying to give each individual clan their own spin, and the Aburame, in my view, don't really get that deep of a look into how their clan functions or just how they work, with the exception of 'Team 8'. So, I just thought I'd take a shot at them. As for Naruto stealing, that's kind of the point, its going to set up a bit of a sub-plot soon enough.

MissNaye- Oh wow, Captain Planet, been a looooong time since I've seen that show.

VFSnake- I was actually going for a bit more of a negative tone with the theft of the statue, though I could see where there could be a breakdown in communication.

SpeeDemon- Took me a while to think of it, though I think the finished result was worth it.

NaylorFan90- Eh, I've been getting that quite a bit, though I tend to mostly think its because people are anxious to see how I'll handle Wave (which, by the way, I believe will be quite good).

Dragon Man 180- Interesting idea. However, on the note of Naruto's theft, a blackout would've been a tad bit too obvious, whereas by creating the mess it looks like it was a genuine accident that tossed the statue out somewhere.

Paintball-Gamer- Thanks man, good to know you enjoyed the chapter. Your assessment on the parts of the Genin are actually quite spot on, and I'd say Naruto would've been equally pleased had the jutsu messed up and turned into a giant gust anyway (still would've gotten the statue).

Gravity The Wizard- Oh, then this is your chapter....

FictionReader98- Thanks, and I have to say I must admit your analysis of the chapter is quite informative, and quite nice to hear. I've already discussed with you a lot of the ideas I've had, so I know you'll enjoy what I have plotted out.

TharzZzDunN- Welcome new reviewer, glad to have your opinions out for me to read. Believe me, nothing makes me more upbeat than to see detailed reviews. Anyway, onto your specific points: yeah, I'm not meteorologist, so perhaps skipping explaining how snow got there would be a good idea. As for the comedy, I find that in a story its alright to start it off with some pretty heavy comedy, but as time goes on its better to slowly cut back on the comedy (keep it, but don't force it) and introduce more plot-related elements and dramatics. As for responding to people's reviews, heck, I only do it cause I enjoy talking with my reviewers. Hope to hear more from you again.

Mark Solo- Well, stay tuned and you'll see how our mains (and a lot of the side-cast) turns out.

soundless steps- Good to see your review, was wondering where you were. Welcome back.

Alright, I think that's enough review responding for now: time to get to the next exciting chapter of Naruto: Alone!

Chapter 20: Joint Training, Team 8 Arrives!

---------- Two Weeks Later ----------

Two weeks time has past since we've last seen Team 7, three weeks of training, sparring, and excruciatingly tiring exercises. Kakashi Hatake had been putting his new team through quite the ringer, training them, for now, in their weakest areas, alongside basic training. Though the fruits of these labors were not immediately apparent, they began to ripen over time. Naruto was slowly beginning to gain the upper-hand over the seal making process, able to more aptly control the Gust Jutsu... though, the accursed kunai still refused to fall from the tree.

The young blond, however, was not getting any better when it came to his new 'habit': the young Uzumaki's 'secret thefts' were slowly beginning to become more and more risqué, and began involving more and more difficult targets. Still, Naruto wasn't exactly worried about being captured, after all, after two weeks of just dropping by different target's homes, stealing an item of value, and then immediately leaving, and with no one having a clue who did it, the young Uzumaki was becoming pretty confident in his skills.

Sakura was also beginning to show progress in her training, it was small progress, but progress nonetheless. Kakashi himself would admit that the hardest part of training with chakra was increasing your reservoir of chakra, in fact the copy-nin often compared the process to trying to fill a well while only dumping in a cup of water at a time. Still, he pushed the pink-haired kunoichi with increasing amounts of weight each time she showed progress, which made said kunoichi all the more pissed off.

Still, the constant training was forcibly instilling into Sakura something that had been absent before in her Academy years: focus. After all, if she didn't put her full focus onto the training, she very well could fall from her inverted position (and, frankly, has on quite a few noted occasions). Sakura's focus had improved, however, it was still farther from where the copy-nin would've liked to have seen in, mostly thanks to the third member of the team.

"Damn it!" A member that should, perhaps, be given a more personal look at, if only for a while.

--------- The Uchiha Clan Compound ----- 3:00 A.M. ----------

The shout of frustration that had so clearly pierced the night air had originated from the Uchiha Clan Compound. The only living inhabitant of the vast compound that had once belonged to one of Konoha's most illustrious clans, Sasuke Uchiha, was currently taking a few deep breaths in one of the closed training areas, his knuckles white as he clenched his fists hard.

Sasuke's progress with Kakashi's training was rather difficult to measure, as the Uchiha had not solely been training with his sensei. Now, this fact alone wasn't much of a shock, as the Uchiha had been training on his own before having to meet his team since the very first day of the team's creation, a habit that had existed since Sasuke took up his rather unsavory goal in life. What was a shock was the sheer amount of volume of training Sasuke had been taking upon himself. It was still two hours before he had to meet his team, and yet he was already tired from training since his training began an hour earlier.

Overall, much of what Kakashi had been aiming for in Sasuke was going swimmingly: the boy had practically mastered the water-walking exercise, and Kakashi was already going to be ready to begin doing with Sasuke what he had been doing with Naruto: help the boy with his chakra element in specific. What the scarecrow did not know was that Sasuke had already begun working with his chakra elements, and had been doing so for four hours every morning for the past two weeks.

Sasuke's reasoning for having so fervently expanded his private training sessions was simple: the Lightning Jutsu he had seen Kakashi use in his chakra demonstration several weeks ago. That small demonstration, that small force of lightning in Kakashi's hand had struck Sasuke quite powerfully, especially when he found out that, with what Sasuke had figured to be fate, that he had lightning specialized chakra. The amount of chakra in that small space was great, and that was just with recycled chakra... and the Uchiha could only imagine how useful that jutsu could be to him. So, alongside training his chakra elements, Sasuke had torn into the Konoha Ninja Library, gathering scrolls on various seals and chakra manipulation.

When Kakashi had demonstrated the technique, Sasuke could make out that the Jounin's hands had moved through three seals... unfortunately, Sasuke couldn't make out exactly which three seals the Jounin had used. So, the Uchiha had been studying up on his basic seals, trying to take a somewhat educated guess at which seals had been used. It had been five nights when the black-haired Genin had begin throwing a few seals together... and had thus far only succeeded in either burning his palms, or outright wasting his chakra.

Still, the black-haired Genin wouldn't have been so persistent if he didn't have any progress to show for his efforts. Thus far he had slowly narrowed down the number of seals to the most possible three thanks to details from old seal scrolls... and hours upon hours of trial and error. Plus, thanks to Kakashi's training, added with his own, Sasuke was getting a good feel for molding his chakra in the way the scrolls described as appropriate for lightning jutsu,

So, catching his breath, Sasuke merely cracked his neck as he brought his hands together. The seals he had narrowed the jutsu down to were the monkey, hare and ox seals. The hare seal was somewhat obvious, as it was common for all kinds of lightning jutsu. The ox seal was what probably gave the jutsu, despite its fine point, so much sheer power, while the monkey seal would've helped hold all that raw power together.

"Alright... time to try again." The Uchiha muttered under his breath as he brought his hands together for the next seal combination he had tacked down since having narrowed the combination down to those three seals. He'd gone through a couple possible ones already (earning him his rather tired appearance), and he felt he was getting close. "Hare, Monkey, Ox." Sasuke muttered as he flashed his hands into those seals, focusing his chakra slowly through each one.

Sasuke then turned his right hand down and slapped his left hand over his wrist, focusing his chakra into the palm of his hand. Sasuke strained for several seconds as he concentrated the chakra into a fine point on his palm, and slowly smirked as he began to feel a warm, but not scalding, feeling developing in his right hand. The black haired Genin stood there for several seconds, waiting for sparks and whistles to begin sounding from the jutsu. When they didn't, Sasuke merely blinked in confusion as he turned his right palm upwards.

What was in his right hand, strangely enough, wasn't a ball of sparks and lightning, but rather an orb, about the size of an orange, sitting quietly in his hand. In the center of the orb sparks could be seen, but they never escaped outside of the radius of the sphere. At first, the Uchiha merely stared at the small ball of sparks in the palm of his hand with interest. After the initial moments of shock, the Uchiha's interest wore thin as he scoffed.

"Another failed attempt... at least this one means I'm getting a little closer." Sasuke said as he pulled chakra out from his right hand, only to find the orb still remaining precariously placed in his palm. The Genin raised his eyebrow for a moment, before quickly tossing the orb over his shoulder. "Whatever, back to wo-"

Sasuke's boredom would immediately be cut as he would suddenly find himself face-first on the ground, having been propelled there by an explosive force that occurred right behind him. The Uchiha felt like his entire back had been stung and singed, the force of the blast having momentarily knocked the young boy senseless. After a few moments, Sasuke slowly forced himself back to his feat, wincing as his back reacted quite painfully to the movement.

"What the hell was that?" Sasuke asked pointedly as he turned to look at the area where he formerly stood. The remaining Uchiha in Konoha was in for quite the surprise when he found, behind where he stood, a large scorched piece of earth, with sparks of electricity still momentarily appearing. Sasuke, curious, slowly remade the seals he had just done, and forced a much lesser amount of chakra into his right hand that last time. Slowly the spark orb formed into his hand, though quite smaller this time. Cautiously, the Uchiha threw it several feet out, the small spark orb first hitting the ground, momentarily rebounding slightly into the air. In a flash, the inner-sparks of the orb burst through the outer layer, producing a small storm of sparks and energy that charred part of the earth beneath it, and left quite of charge in the atmosphere.

Sasuke's eyes stared, boring into the very air that the small orb had, basically, blown up in. Feeling the burns and stings on his back, and then seeing the effects first-hand... made Sasuke smirk quite widely.

"Let's give this a few tries and see where we go-" Sasuke began, before quite painfully wincing. "-tomorrow..." The boy said as he slowly stood up and began moving through the compound back to where he slept, his focus diverted from the jutsu he had been trying to copy, to the one he had just accidentally discovered.

---------- Team 7 Meeting Bridge ----- A Week Later ----------

"Morning...." The tired greeting was once again shared by the three sleepy members of Konoha's Team 7, as slowly they all stood in their respective spots on the bridge, the routine having long since become quite mechanical for them. Naruto would walk over to the railing and lift himself up onto it, sitting on the wooden support while kicking his legs in the air for some form of movement. Sasuke and Sakura would stand just opposite of his, Sasuke's arms crossed and his head lowered as he leaned up against the bridge's rails, whilst Sakura would stand somewhat slumped over, the kunoichi still finding waking up that early in the morning just to wait for their silver-haired to arrive hours later to be quite dull and, on a few occasions, sleep inducing.

This routine wasn't often interrupted, and often times it was only when one of the two boys would arrive with some kind of injury or another that the idle chit-chat and the silence would be replaced with rather worried looks from Sakura, and one of the boys jabbing the injured one over said injury. One such event occurred last week when Sasuke arrived at the bridge, wincing in pain from (unbeknownst to either Sakura or Naruto) his rather sparky discovery.

Of course, Sasuke wouldn't admit to either Naruto or Sakura that he was injure, as the placement and the type of wound he suffered would only warrant endless questions from Sakura, and blaring laughs from Naruto. The Uchiha could've heard in the back of his mind Naruto endlessly laughing about how Sasuke ended up hitting himself in the back with a Fire Jutsu, while Sakura would question how such an event would be possible.

Even when he couldn't convince them he wasn't hurt, he did get them to back down about the rest of the injury, though a rather close call occurred when Naruto, in a joking manner, slapped Sasuke on the back, nearly causing Sasuke to fall over after seizing up from the pain. Of course, over the course of the week, the Uchiha would get nominal revenge on Naruto, as the blond thief would from time to time come to the bridge either a bit exhausted or looking like a bit of a mess.

Of course, this was primarily because the renewed thief was beginning to spend longer and longer nights out in the streets of Konoha, trying to size up, and then rob, houses for his new found adrenaline rush. Even the energetic blond was beginning to find the late nights were draining on him a bit. Though, at this point it was still nothing that couldn't be fixed up by resting while waiting for Kakashi to show, so Naruto still wasn't overly concerned.

Still, it did earn him some taunts from the Uchiha, whom would often mention that perhaps Kakashi's training had become a bit too much for him. Of course, there was very little bite in the taunts between the two, so Sakura wouldn't step in with her... explosive rage to put either of the two of them back in their places. After exchanging the greeting, the team merely sat back and began waiting for Kakashi to show up, as they had done every morning practically since the team was formed.

It was only a few hours later when, almost right on his 'late' schedule, a large plume of smoke made its appearance at the end of the bridge, Kakashi Hatake slowly appearing amidst the smoke, waving at his students with a curved eye. "Yo." The silver-haired Jounin greeted in his normal light tone, his team merely waving back at the man. The scarecrow Jounin walked right on up to his team, the Jounin merely waving his team to follow him, which they did, as they did every morning. After a few minutes of walking, Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura noticed they weren't heading to the Team 7 grounds, and before their minds could even form the question, Kakashi answered their curiosity.

"I forgot to mention at the bridge, we won't be training at the normal grounds today: I've got a different sort of training lined up for us today." Kakashi said, a smirk forming under his mask. Immediately, all three students sweat dropped, stuck between being relieved that they weren't going to have to go through the normal cabal of strenuous but repetitive training exercises and being a little worried about just how much worse this new exercise could end up being.

"Why didn't you mention this earlier?" Sakura asked cautiously, Kakashi merely shrugged as he continued walking.

"Because then it wouldn't be a surprise." Kakashi said in a light-tone, causing his pupils to sweat drop. Had it not been for more recent surprises, like with the training and the joint-missions, they'd be suspicious that this 'surprise' would be like his first with their first string of D-Rank missions... a series of chores. It took several minutes for Team 7 to arrive at Kakashi's 'surprise' destination, and indeed what they had found was quite the shock.

Before them stood three persons, two of which were their own age, and one of which looked to be about Kakashi's age. The older woman had dark black hair and piercing red eyes, wearing a series of bandages and wrap around her body, over top of some sort of red long-vest: a headband tied around her forehead. The two others were immediately recognizable to Team 7 as old members of their class, Shino Aburame and Hinata Hyuga, whom looked nearly exactly the way they did back at the Academy, Shino's long coat hiding most of his face with those dark black glasses covering his eyes, and Hinata wearing her large coat.

The three waiting members of Team 8 looked over at Team 7, Shino immediately bringing his hand up to his face to rub the bridge of his nose, already foreseeing that today was to be 'one of those days', while Hinata merely blushed upon seeing Naruto for the first time since the teams were divided at the Academy, 'Naruto-kun' being whispered under her breath in shock. The older woman, Kurenai, sighed as she shook her head.

"You're late Kakashi, very very late..." Kurenai scolded her fellow Jounin, whom merely returned with a small chuckle.

"Well, at least I'm not the latest, it would appear that one member of your team is missi-" Kakashi was suddenly interrupted when a quick figure rushed out from the bushes to pounce upon Naruto, tackling him to the ground while sitting quite prominently on the blond's back.

"Hey there 'Street Fox', haven't seen you around for a while." The loud, boisterous voice of Kiba Inuzuka said, a smirk plastered on his face as, from the same bushes, a small white dog, Akamaru, emerged and ran over to Naruto, taking a seat upon the blond's head and while barking in a high-pitched, happy tone. While Sakura and Sasuke chuckled lightly at seeing their teammate so suddenly ambushed, Naruto was not at all pleased.

"Dammit dog-breath, get the hell off of me!" The Street Fox roared back at his old antagonist, who merely stuck a tongue out at the blond. Kurenai and Kakashi sweat dropped at the scene, the woman Jounin shaking her head.

"Kiba was 'late' because I sent him out to try and hurry you along... I shouldn't be surprised that he decided to fool around instead." The Team 8 Jounin said with a sigh. "Kiba, get off of him..." She said in an exasperated tone, the Inuzuka, somewhat grumpily, following her order, the boy and Akamaru jumping off of Naruto, who merely raised himself back up from the ground slowly. The blond glared over at his sensei, which immediately got to explaining before his student would make a scene.

"If you're going to ask why we're here, then allow me to explain." Kakashi said, jabbing his thumb over towards Team 8. "Kurenai and I decided to sign up you all for joint-team exercises today. Much like the joint-team missions with Team 10 a while back, we'll be working together for training today, but we'll be separating for missions later after this." Kakashi said, this explanation quickly diffusing Naruto, whom merely crossed his arms and glared over at Kiba,

"And yes, you have to." Kakashi quickly added as a follow up to his statement, Naruto nearly cursing aloud. "Now then, while Kurenai and I discuss your training for today, how about you six get reacquainted." Kakashi said as more of a command than a question, Kurenai nodding in affirmation as the six Genin merely nodded, some in a bit of an exasperated manner. The two Jounin left their students alone, while they began discussing the training for the day. The Genin were a bit slow to join up together, mostly because Naruto was warily eying Shino and Kiba (and vice-versa), Sakura was a bit slow and watching to see if Kiba and Naruto would go back at it, Hinata was a bit shy in starting a conversation, and Sasuke was just flat out uninterested at the time.

Finally, Naruto just stuck his tongue out at the bug and dog boys and walked over towards the young Hyuga, a small grin on his face.

"Yo Hinata, haven't seen you for a long time!" Naruto eagerly greeted Hinata, the young girl blushing and nodding as she looked to the side.

"Y-yeah, not since the Academy and the c-club." The shy girl stammered slowly, glancing up to look at her crush more closely, before looking back down. "Y-you got some new clothes..." Hinata began, inwardly sweat dropping at the rather odd, for her, topic of conversation. Naruto, however, dove right into it.

"Thanks for noticing, bought them with my first missions' pay." Naruto said, immediately drawing a somewhat surprised look from the heiress, which only caused Naruto's smirk to grow into a grin, knowing what a former member of the Street Fox Fan Club would be thinking. "Yep, didn't steal these for once!" Naruto said, somewhat boastfully showing off his purchased items, Hinata smiling somewhat.

"That's good N-Naruto-kun..." The blushing kunoichi said sincerely, unknowingly setting of a firestorm of words as she was now (delightedly) obligated to listen to Naruto's tales of what had been going on for the past few weeks, the other four Genin merely sweat dropping as they finally began talking themselves.

"Yo broody, pinky, haven't seen you two for a while." Kiba said with a large grin, Sakura and Sasuke merely sweat dropping at their old nicknames.

"Oh Kiba... I so missed you...." Sakura commented, her sarcasm hardly being hidden as Kiba merely chuckled, Sasuke merely rolling his eyes as he walked over more closely to Shino, the only person gathered here who was probably as non-talkative as he was.

"You have to put up with this a lot?" The Uchiha asked the bug-controlling, who merely nodded.

"As much as I hate to say so, yes... I do..." Shino replied, the two stoic Genin standing there for a few moments, watching as the other two members of their respective teams spoke with each other. "I have to say, out of the two of us it would appear you ended up with the most vocal of our previous classmates." Shino said as Kiba and Sakura's conversation devolved into a few loud taunts from Kiba being aimed to Sakura whom was only growing more and more frustrated, whilst Naruto continued to loudly proclaim the grand progress he had been making in the weeks training to Hinata, who merely stood back and listened to her crush.

"Maybe." The Uchiha said with a shrug, before the two's eyes immediately darted over to watch as Sakura slugged Kiba, the dog-boy either having said something rude, or more likely, lewd. "They have their moments." Sasuke admitted, Shino only slightly raising one of his eyebrows while remaining silent. Naruto and Hinata had seen the punch themselves, Hinata looking worriedly at her teammate as Naruto just blinked.

"Huh, that was weird." The Uzumaki commented idly before turning back to his old fan club member. "So anyway, then Chouji and I were cleaning up, and to clear off the counter I decided to learn this new jutsu I've been practicing under Kakashi-sensei!" The excited blond continued telling his story, the purple eyed kunoichi merely nodding along with his story.

"Th-that's amazing Naruto-kun, i-it sounds like your sensei's been doing a g-good job." Hinata said whilst pressing her fingers together, Naruto nodding vigorously. Said sensei was standing beside his Team 8 counterpart, looking over their students.

"I don't know Kakashi... considering the rather aggressive nature of a few of our students this could end up not working out so well." Kurenai said worriedly as she saw Sakura stood over Kiba, laughing at the dog boy. Kakashi looked at them and shrugged, pulling out some strips of paper and his kunai pouch.

"They're bound to be forced to work together out in the field if they advance beyond Genin, might as well prepare them for it now rather than later." The silver-haired Jounin said in a somewhat bored manner as he approached the Genin. "Alright kids, time to get to work." Kakashi called out as the two teams of Genin gathered around the two Jounin, Kiba being a bit slower to the uptake thanks to the unexpected punch from Sakura.

"Today's training is going to be a teamwork exercise." Kurenai began the explanation, which immediately caused all three members of Team 7 to pale dramatically. Kurenai raised her eyebrow and looked over at Kakashi with a somewhat suspicious look, the Jounin merely shrugging as Kurenai sighed. "Right, well, the exercise is going to be a three-on-three fight between two teams, the first team to knock unconscious the other three members of the opposite team wins." Kurenai explained simply enough, Team 7 immediately lighting up as they heard this, while Team 8, specifically Hinata, seemed a bit downtrodden.

"Of course, it wouldn't be much of an exercise if we kept you all in teams you were comfortable with." Kakashi immediately chimed in Team 7 snapping their necks towards their sensei, which merely raised the piece of paper and kunai pouch, the names of the six Genin on the pieces of paper. "I'll be putting all of your names in my pouch, and then I'll pick randomly from my pouch three names. Those three names will be on one team, while the remainder will be on the opposing team." The cycloptic Jounin said as his visible eye curved, the the collective jaws of the two teams gaping somewhat.

"What the hell gives?" Kiba immediately responded, the dog boy quickly followed up by the equally loud shout of Naruto.

"Seriously, why do we have to be all mixed up?" Naruto roared, unaware that Hinata was beginning to blush quite deeply at the aspect of, even if temporarily, being teamed up with Naruto for an exercise.

"Well, I suppose the first reason would be to get rid of that attitude." Kakashi began, before continuing. "While the team set-ups will be your most common combination throughout your Shinobi career, you'll also end up being teamed up with other ninja you might not even know for various missions that require skills you might not be sure they have." Kakashi said, Kurenai quickly following up on Kakashi's statement.

"Indeed, you're going to need to be able to work well together with ninja outside of your own teams, so Kakashi and I constructed this exercise in order to help with that." The Genjutsu-specialist explained, Naruto and Kiba going back to just grumbling, having been successfully silenced by the explanation. "So, Kakashi, if you would?"

"Way ahead of you Kurenai." The lazy Jounin said as he put all six pieces of paper into the pouch, slightly closing up the container as he shook it around a bit. After a minute or so of shaking, Kakashi unzipped the pouch, and reached in for the little slips. "Alright.... first person for Team 1 is...." Kakashi said as he slowly pulled out the slip, trying to build tension, when in reality all he was doing was annoying most of the Genin.

"Sasuke." Sasuke merely nodded after hearing the announcement, walking away from the rest of the group to help create a separation for the teams. Kakashi just shrugged as he reached in and pulled out another name. "Sakura." Kakashi said, immediately sweat dropping as Sakura gave a quick, somewhat relieved nod as she ran over to join Sasuke, the Jounin shaking his head as he reached in again. "Here's hoping I don't accidentally pull out your name Naruto..." Kakashi said with a small chuckle, dramatically drawing the last slip of paper from the pouch, slowly bringing it over to his visible eye to read as he left the Genin sweating bullets.

"Hinata." The Jounin read casually as the reactions from the remaining four Genin were immediate.

"WHAT!?!?!?" Naruto and Kiba screamed in complete shock, Shino's eyebrows raised far above the rim of his glasses, whilst Hinata merely walked over with her temporary team, casting sorry glances back to the other three Genin as she did.

"You've got to be kidding me! You can't expect me to work with street-boy here!" Kiba roared as Naruto merely glared at the dog user.

"Hey, you think you're upset?! Because of the stupid name-drawing I have to stick around you! I'm probably going to smell like wet dog and kibbles by the time this is all over!" Naruto shouted at Kiba, who merely turned to look Naruto dead in the eye.

"And what's wrong with smelling like wet dog and kibbles?!" The dog-master asked in an indignant matter, Akamaru growling at Naruto.

"It smells worse than shit, that's what's wrong with it!" Naruto exclaimed as he and Kiba nearly went for each other's throats, Kurenai and Kakashi beginning to regret having done this randomly, seeing the chaos they had just unleashed.

"Naruto, Kiba, stop this now!" Kurenai said firmly and loudly, Naruto and Kiba immediately shutting up at her order.

"Much better." Kakashi quickly followed up as he clapped his hands together. "Alright, teams, huddle up and try to come up with sort of strategy to use against the other team. You have five minutes to talk amongst yourselves." The cycloptic Jounin explained as he waved the teams off in different directions, Sasuke's group heading off a few yards away, Naruto's going doing much the same: the main difference being that there was much more distance between Naruto's group than there was with the opposite.

"This is probably the most hopeless situation I've seen in a long time." Kurenai said with a shake of her head, Kakashi merely glancing at her.

"We'll see Kurenai." Kakashi said as his fellow Jounin just raised her eyebrow.

"Really, you think they honestly have a chance." She said, Kakashi merely plucking his book from his kunai pouch.

"You're putting words in my mouth Kurenai. I only said that we'll see, I didn't say they'd have a chance." The silver-haired pervert said as he lightly laughed at the contents of his book, Kurenai twitching a bit as she shook her head. Meanwhile the two teams discussed strategy, one doing so better than the other.

"Alright, just follow my orders and we'll do fine." Kiba said with a bit of a snarl, Akamaru 'yipping' in agreement with his partner, whilst Naruto and Shino merely raised their eyebrows.

"No offense Kiba, but your best ideas usually only involve blindly rushing the enemy, a strategy that doesn't even work on your fleas, I'd wager." The Aburame stated calmly, as his teammate merely glared at him. "I think it's rather obvious who should be leading this operation." Shino stated calmly as he readjusted his glasses, Naruto merely nodding.

"Yeah, me!" The blond shouted, Kiba and Shino merely staring blankly at Naruto. "What? Two out of three of them are my teammates, I know how to handle them best!" Naruto stated confidently, whilst Shino raised one finger.

"You forget that one of our teammates is also on that team, and considering the rather large leap between you normally being on the same team as them and Hinata being on the same team as them, I wouldn't count for them to be using the normal strategies you may be familiar with." Shino said as both Kiba and Naruto just raised their eyebrows at the sunglasses-wearing Genin.

"Alright Mr. Smart Guy, what's your big idea then?" Naruto asked with his arms crossed, Shino merely shrugging his shoulders slightly.

"You two distract them while I use your distraction to knock them all out." Shino stated calmly, while the two other members of the team merely stared blankly at him. "Seeing as how you both are fast, but hardly adept at really fighting, you two could prove to quite skilled at distraction."

"FUCK THAT!" The 'loud and obnoxious' Genin screamed at Shino, whom merely pounded at his ears in order to get the ringing out. A ways away from the arguing team, the group of Sasuke, Sakura, and Hinata stood in a small circle, finishing up the details of their strategy. The group's speaking had mostly been dominated by Sasuke, wither either quiet inputs on Shino and Kiba from Hinata, or quick extra thoughts from Sakura. In all honesty, this team structure was less prone to arguing due to the lack of dominant personalities (something Naruto's team had in spades).

Hinata's input about her teammates, plus Sasuke's and Sakura's personal experiences with Naruto were proving right: Naruto's group wasn't exactly going to be working like a well-oiled machine.

"Yep... they're already trying to rip each other apart..." Sasuke began, looking at the two girls. "So when the training begins we go forward with the original plan... are we clear?" Sasuke whispered, looking over his shoulder at his teammate's group, before looking back at the current group. Sakura merely shook her head yes, the pink-haired kunoichi obviously ready to go. Hinata, on the other hand, looked rather unsure, and slowly raised her hand. "Yeah?" Sasuke asked rather bluntly, Hinata slowly prodding her fingers together.

"We-well... I know we have to fight them... since this is training.. b-but I was wondering...." Hinata said slowly, looking down at the ground, and only giving occasional glances to her fellow Genin.

"Yeah?" Both Sasuke and Sakura asked at once, Hinata blushing slightly as she thought.

"I-If you two could handle N-N-Naruto-kun, so I don't have to fight him..." The shy girl asked in a stutter, causing Sasuke to raise his eyebrows quite high. Sasuke was actually depending on Hinata hitting Naruto with a few strikes from the Hyuga Clan Jyuken, to help lock up some of the abundant chakra Naruto had so that he wouldn't keep on going and going on through the fight. In Sasuke's mind, the Hyuga before him was absolutely needed to at least tap Naruto a few times. As Sasuke was about to answer, however, Sakura quickly stepped in.

"Of course Hinata, don't worry, Sasuke-kun and I'll handle Naruto." Sakura suddenly interjected, earning her a somewhat peeved look from the Uchiha.

"Why just you and me?" Sasuke immediately asked, his annoyed tone apparent, causing Hinata to fall back a bit, while Sakura merely raised her eyebrows.

"Come on, don't you think it's a bit obvious?" Sakura asked her crush, as Sasuke, once again, only raised his eyebrows in response. Sasuke look a long, hard look at Hinata, whom fidgeted under the Uchiha's gaze, before looking back over his shoulder at Naruto, whom at the moment was in the middle of a 'who can choke who to death first' contest with Kiba, Shino only looking on at the situation with a downtrodden look... well, it was hard to tell if it was downtrodden, but the slight downward curvature of his eyebrows would indicate that... maybe... sort of.

Sasuke only shrugged as he looked back at the two women.

"No." He plainly answered, causing Sakura to face vault.

"Oh, never mind, it's a girl thing!" Sakura said as she lifted herself from off the ground, Hinata's blush ever-present as Sasuke just shook his head.

"Ugh.... fine..." Sasuke relented, deciding that it'd just be better to avoid arguing about this, seeing as how their opposing group's arguing was supposed to help them. Looks like he was going to have to just try to knock Naruto out the old fashioned way: by beating the living hell out of him.

"Alright kids, time for strategies is up." Kakashi called out from behind his book, Naruto and Kiba letting go of each other's throats in order to face the other group, the two sides keeping their eyes on the other. "You all can go on my signal." Kakashi said with a slight yawned as he read through the rest of the page, putting the book away so he could keep a closer eye on the exercise. "And go."

Immediately after Kakashi gave the signal for the exercise to begin, the two groups immediately went at it. Sakura and Hinata jumped several feet away from Sasuke to the left and right of the Uchiha, covering his flanks. The response from Naruto's group was not nearly as coordinated, as the blond in the group merely charged for Sasuke, the only opponent out of the three he was thrilled to fight, Kiba immediately went for Sakura, whom he had all but deemed the weakest link in the opposing group's chain, while Shino just stood his ground, remaining in a set position as he fixed his glasses, making Kakashi nod.

"Interesting move: rather than move in with the others, he's going to hang back and wait for a better chance to strike." Kakashi noted verbally, while Kurenai merely nodded in response, remaining more focused on the fight than on Kakashi. Sasuke's group, in the meantime, had gotten the plan down quite well, having at least somewhat expected most of this.

Hinata's information on Kiba and Shino proved right: Kiba was bullish and rough, and wasn't above honestly going after the weakest link in the team before moving onto the others, even if the weakest link was a girl. Akamaru was hanging back as well, apparently the two not having quite gotten up fighting combinations with each other, despite the Inuzuka legacy. Shino, on the other hand, was a bit smarter: hanging back and waiting for his two more energetic teammates to do their damage before moving in himself.

Sakura and Sasuke, meanwhile, saw Naruto's move coming a mile away: the blond was going for what he saw as the biggest threat out of the three, thinking that since this was the first time he'd been completely fresh in a fight with the Uchiha, that he could use all of his strength and a lot of energy to knock Sasuke out immediately, which would leave the rest of the exercise, presumably, without much work or resistance.

The position the group took was to help deal with this. Though originally Hinata's position to Sasuke's left was originally for Sasuke to kick Naruto her way so she could close up some tenketsu, Hinata now served as a guard for Sasuke's flank, in case Shino thought he could make his move while Sasuke was busy trying to fight Naruto. Sakura's position to Sasuke's right was to help divert the other loud-mouth in the opposing group, to give Sasuke some breathing room. Sasuke's position in the center was a cover-all, meant to help him reach either of the other two members of the group is they needed him, or if he needed them.

"Hey, teme!" Naruto's shout snapped Sasuke out of his thoughts, seeing Naruto making the cross seal which had become a familiar sight in their recent sparring sessions. "Get ready to eat dirt!" The blond shouted, as suddenly three clones appeared right beside Naruto, each preparing to beat the Uchiha down. The first of the clones jumped up into the air and spun forward, bringing one of his legs out to strike Sasuke in the head, a move that Sasuke dodged just by jumping back. As the clone landed, he jumped from his landing position, throwing a punch at Sasuke who blocked it.

Quickly following up the first clone, two more Naruto clones quickly jumped to Sasuke's left and right, each rearing a fist back as the first clone continued to lay down pressure upon the black-haired Genin. Sasuke grunted as he blocked another attempted punch from the first clone, quickly grabbing onto the incoming fists of the next two. With a quick flip and a twist of his wrists the Uchiha managed to send a kick into the first clone's chin, dispelling it. Still holding onto the other two clones' hands as he landed, Sasuke gave a quick, strong pull on their hands, and forced the two Naruto doubles' heads together, releasing the clones as they grabbed onto their noggins.

As Sasuke's footing returned to normal, he was forced to duck back in order to avoid a kunai suddenly chucked at him by the final, real Naruto, whom sprinted towards Sasuke. Before the Uchiha could even blink, Naruto was upon him, the thief's speed and agility serving his effort to catch Sasuke while he was distracted. The Uchiha grunted as he ducked back even further, landing on his hands as Naruto's punched soared over him. Sasuke took his opening as he quickly forced himself up onto his hands, bringing his legs to his chest as he aimed a kick at the blond boy's chest.

With a sudden release Naruto was suddenly struck right in the middle of his chest, the thief stumbling back, looking agitated as Sasuke quickly found his way back onto his feet. Sasuke would also quickly find the two clones he had bash heads a few minutes ago upon him one again. Sasuke, not having nearly enough room or time to dodge or mess with the clones again, simply settled for blocking their initial attacks, his legs locking up as he kept himself steady against the blow.

'Perfect.' Shino thought to himself as he quickly pulled out a kunai, tossing it towards Sasuke's left knee. The bug-user had been waiting for Naruto to force Sasuke into a mostly stationary position, and with the Uchiha strained just holding off two strong slams from the clones, there couldn't have been a better position. If the kunai would hit, then Sasuke's movements would be knocked down several notches, effectively ending his role in the fight.

Unfortunately for the Aburame, he had not taken into account Hinata, whom as soon as she had seen Shino's attempt at an attack threw a few shuriken, throwing multiple in order to ensure they would hit the flying projectile. The shuriken hit their mark, as the kunai was deflected away from the Uchiha, who at that moment managed to shove the two clones away from him, and then proceed to fight the three Naruto's at once. Shino's eyebrows narrowed as he glanced at his shy teammate, Hinata standing in a defensive posture, seemingly ready for whatever would be thrown at her or her group members.

Shino was hesitant in attacking Hinata himself: the Hyuga heiress wasn't incapable of defending herself, and the thought of possibly opening himself to a sudden attack from Sasuke, whom he thought would win in his and Naruto's miniature skirmish, wasn't an appealing idea. Shino also looked over at Kiba, whom by all means was being only somewhat serious with Sakura, reminding him of a cat playing with a mouse with a broken leg... though, if he ever told Kiba this, the dog-partner and his nin-kin would likely rip into him verbally and physically.

Speaking of Kiba, the Inuzuka took a few swings at Sakura, who grunted as she flipped back away from Kiba, who just kept right on up with the Haruno ninja.

"Come on pinky, I'm barely breaking a sweat." Kiba said, taking another swipe at Sakura, whom found that the only practical thing to do against the faster and stronger opponent would be to continually back up. However, Sakura was becoming more and more frustrated with the Inuzuka's taunts, this frustration beginning to build in great amounts as she was continually forced back.

The sound of popping was heard as Sasuke dispersed Naruto's two clones, Sasuke idly taking the two out during a rather raucous round of flying fists which was still ongoing, with Sasuke slowly gaining an advantage over the single, real Uzumaki. Naruto, realizing that one-on-one taijutsu against the Uchiha wasn't going to end well for him, tried to jump back a bit so he could successfully use the Shadow Clone Jutsu once again. His effort was cut short when, suddenly, Sasuke ran up to him and sent a kick up into his jaw, the force of the swift kick being enough to give Naruto some air, and unintentionally sent him towards Kiba's and Sakura's fight.

Sakura's back was facing the approaching Uzumaki bullet, whilst Kiba had not been paying enough attention to Sasuke's and Naruto's fighting to know that Naruto was heading their way. Kiba, getting tired of Sakura dodging him, decided to try and knock the pink-hair kunoichi out now. Kiba, in a bit of an over-exaggerated manner, swept a kick towards Sakura's legs, Sakura stumbling back a bit as it caught out of her legs.

"Take this!" Kiba said, using the momentum from the sweep to swing another kick at Sakura's head. Fortunately for Sakura, and unfortunately for Naruto, Kiba's initial sweep had worked a tad too well, sending Sakura flat on her back. Naruto, whom Sasuke had sent Kiba's and Sakura's way with a strike of his own, suddenly found himself at the receiving end of Kiba's second kick, being sent back Sasuke's way.

Sasuke's eyes widened as his blond teammate once again began heading his way, the Uchiha's eyes peering back at Hinata. Naruto was coming in too fast for him to just stop him in mid-air, and Sakura wouldn't be able to do much from her position on the ground. Sasuke ground his teeth, disregarding his agreement with Sakura at the beginning of the fight, knowing that he could take Naruto out of this fight now if he just...

"Hinata, finish him!" Sasuke said as he quickly fell back onto his hands, cocking his legs towards his chest as Naruto came just over the Uchiha. With a sudden snap the onyx-eyed Genin sent his legs forward at a tilted angle, propelling the blond towards the shy kunoichi. Hinata at first was flabbergasted, almost unwilling to believe that her longtime crush was, for all intents and purposes, flying right at her. The shock quickly turned into embarrassment as the thought fully made its way through her head, time seemingly slowing as she gained control of her mind.

'N-N-Naruto-kun is heading right at me, I have to move!' Hinata thought as she prepared to do just that, before another thought suddenly struck her. 'Wait... if he hits the ground, he might get hurt, I have to catch him!' The shy heiress then thought as she stuck her ground. However, Hinata's thought quickly turned to images of her holding Naruto in her arms, and a deep blush formed on her face. 'But that would be so embarrassing! I have to move!' Hinata thought again, before the previous thought of him hurting himself returned. The shy-kunoichi's thoughts kept turning about like this, the girl frozen in position as her mind went in loops and circles over the matter.

As Hinata seemed to not be able to make up her mind, the laws of gravity took the case into its own hands. With a loud 'crack', Naruto's and Hinata's heads bashed into each other, the blow knocking both Genin senseless as Naruto landed a few feet away from Hinata. Both Genins' eyes were spinning wildly as the red color remained on Hinata's face, 'Naruto-kun' whispered dazedly under her breath.

The collective response to the scene from all the conscious persons was to sweat drop, Kiba especially surprised at the events.

"What the he-AH!" Kiba screamed as he suddenly felt Sakura, from her position beneath him, kick the Inuzuka right in the jewels. Kiba knelt down a bit, in a serious amount of pain when Sakura pulled out a kunai and twisted it around so that she could swing the butt of the weapon. Within second the butt of the kunai slammed into the side of his face, pounding the blunt metal of the weapon across Kiba's jaw, knocking the dog user silly. Akamaru ran over to Kiba, trying to wake his partner up by licking his face while Sakura looked over Kiba.

"Who's laughing now dog-boy!" The pink-haired kunoichi roared at Kiba, whom merely groaned from the very sudden, strong punch from the kunoichi, only saved from further damage by Sasuke, whom was noticing the dynamic of the fight had changed. If Naruto came back to his senses soon, as the Uchiha suspected he would, and suspected that Hinata'd be out from getting hit by the Uzumaki's hard skull for a while, then the fight would become 3-on-2, a situation Sasuke knew wouldn't be good.

"Sakura, take Hinata back into the forest!" The Uchiha suddenly shouted, Sakura snapping out of her anger to nod at Sasuke, reluctantly walking away from Kiba and grabbing up Hinata, before running into the woods. Sasuke would have joined Hinata and Sakura, had not Shino suddenly began stalking towards Sasuke.

"It seems as though, for the moment, it's you and me." The Aburame commented idly, Sasuke glancing towards Kiba and Naruto, making sure the two of them didn't suddenly get up. "I wouldn't bother heading back with Sakura-san and Hinata-san if I were you..." Shino said, extending his arms out to his sides. Slowly, insects began fluttering and flying from out of his coat's sleeves, the insects forming together into a large cloud of bugs. Sasuke, nerved by the sight, instinctively went to sarcasm, to try and draw Shino in for taijutsu.

"What's the matter Shino? Can't fight me without your bugs?" The Uchiha questioned, surprised when Shino merely nodded.

"Don't think I'm as easy to play as either Naruto or Kiba. My chances of beating you with my taijutsu are extremely low... my insects, on the other hand, have a much higher chance of bringing victory against you my way." Shino said in his mono-tone as Sasuke sweat dropped, bringing his hands together and flashing through a few seals as Shino's insects began closing in.

"Fire Release: Grand Fireball Jutsu!" Sasuke shouted as he pursued his lips, blowing a fireball right towards the horde of insects. Imagine Sasuke's complete shock when, seemingly without effort, the kikaichu merely diverted from their horde, almost all of them dodging the fire jutsu, before reforming into the solid mass.

"Sorry Sasuke, but given the synonymous nature of the Uchiha Clan and Fire Jutsu , that move couldn't have been any more predictable unless you had told me several minutes beforehand." The Aburame stated calmly, as the Uchiha's mind began racing. Sasuke knew he could've just run right back into the woods, however escaping insects, especially this amount, would prove probably too large a task. Add onto that all he would be doing would be to eventually lead the kikaichu insect's way to Sakura and Hinata, and running didn't seem like a good plan.

Even if he stayed, kunai, shuriken, taijutsu, and now even Fire Jutsu, weren't going to help hold these things off....

'Well, no better time than this for a real test..' The Uchiha thought to himself as he began flashing through a new set of seals. Noticing the seals Kakashi raised his eyebrow, recognizing, at the very least, the three seals used.

'They may be in a different order, but those were definitely the seals for the jutsu...' Kakashi thought, his mind flashing back to the chakra element demonstration several weeks ago. 'I was expecting him to be excited... didn't expect him to try and copy it... and fail.' The silver-haired Jounin thought as Kurenai herself had raised eyebrows, as Sasuke turned his hand, his palm facing upwards into the air. Shino slowed the progress of his insects towards Sasuke to see what was happening, and found himself surprised yet underwhelmed at Sasuke's 'harder try'.

In Sasuke's palm formed an opaque orb about the size of an orange, the unclear surface of the orb obscuring what may have been inside of it. Shino, from a distance, couldn't quite make out many more details than that, the bug-user sighing as he shook his head, his insects continuing their forward flying towards the Uchiha. Sasuke merely reared back his palm, his fingers tapping on the orb lightly, causing the sparks inside to begin to move more rapidly.

"Here goes!" Sasuke said, this being his first test of: "Lightning Release: Spark Grenade!"

In an over-handed throw, the Uchiha tossed his new jutsu right towards the horde of kikaichu insects, sparks beginning to fly out from the orb's radius as the jutsu's shell began to break down. The kikaichu, unsure of the effects of the technique, merely moved out of way, the orb flying right into the midst of the insects. To the surprise of Shino and the two observing Jounin a small flash could be seen in the middle of the insect horde, quickly followed by a small explosion of sparks and whistles. The initial blast was several feet in diameter, burning up the insects within it, the follow up was a series of electric sparks jolting from insect to insect, zapping each kikaichu bug to crisps.

Shino's eyebrows were far above his glasses as he stared at what he considered carnage, seeing most of his insects now dead on the ground. Sasuke, not only seeing that his practicing was paying, but also seeing that Shino was greatly disarmed, he made a run for it, heading back into the forest. As Naruto and Kiba slowly shook off their blows, both Genin having attained mighty headaches in the process, Kurenai and Kakashi took note of the training thus far.

"Perhaps it wouldn't be wise for us to continue... this is getting a bit more serious than I expected." Kurenai commented, looking over at Kakashi who only stared back at her.

"You probably should've had your expectations higher at the beginning then." The silver-haired Jounin said as he looked on at the scene. "I knew that Naruto and Sasuke were going to take this seriously, like they do with all of their spars... Shino, given the Aburame's preference for efficiency, was bound to pull some dangerous tricks. Kiba... well, you know the Inuzuka. Point is that it was bound to turn serious from the start: now-" Kakashi began as he smiled under his mask. "-I want to see just who turns out on top." Kakashi commented, Kurenai seeming a bit reluctant at first, before just nodding.

"Fine..." The female Jounin sighed, watching Naruto and Kiba rise to their feet. The two boys were still a bit stunned, Naruto being the first to come to his senses.

"Where the hell did they go?" The blond asked, as Kiba narrowed his eyes, moving his tongue across his mouth.

"Why can I taste blood?" Kiba asked aloud, the two other Genin sweat dropping at the dog-partner's statement. Shino sighed as he shook his head, bending down to the ground and placing his right hand flat on the ground. Slowly but surely, a small trickle of insects came out from under his sleeve, these kikaichu insects having small thorax and head, but rather large abdomens.

"We're going to have to go in after them." Shino said with a bit of a sigh, pouring chakra into the insects, drawing the attention of Kiba and Naruto.

"What the hell are you do-" Naruto began asking, his eyes widening a bit as the abdomens of the kikaichu bugs began swelling, before slowly tearing.

"These are female kikaichu... before one of them becomes a Queen, there's a natural sack of eggs stored in its abdomen to help build off the eventual egg-producing organ..." Shino explained as, slowly, tiny, tiny kikaichu insects began rising out of the female insects abdomens. "If you pour in enough chakra, the eggs will hatch prematurely... they might not be as big or strong as their full-grown fellow insects, but in a stretch, they're useful." Shino explained as the tiny insects left the corpses of the females, climbing up Shino's sleeve. "Seeing as how Sasuke nearly whipped out most of my insects, these will have to do." Shino explained slowly, as Naruto paled, looking over at Kiba, who merely shook his head.

"This is the least disgusting thing he's done..." Kiba commented, making Naruto turn a bit green as Kiba turned to the forest the other group ran into, tapping his chin. "Anyways, it's going to be tough getting them now; these trees grow in thick, it'll be hard enough to move around the forest floor, much less catch them unguarded." Kiba began, as Naruto suddenly kicked in some knowledge.

"Yeah, but because they're so thick the branches are sturdy: we can cross over top of them and then surprise them from above." The former thief commented, leading the Inuzuka to look at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Hey, Street Fox, how did you know about that?" Kiba asked, Naruto just glancing back at him.

"Well mutt-boy, if you must know, I've done my fair share of hunting out here for food back in the day..." Naruto said, tilting his nose up at Kiba, expecting some kind of smart-ass remark.

"Seriously, well now, ain't that a surprise." Kiba said, surprising Naruto a bit. "Here I thought you were just some no-good street-boy, didn't know you did some hunting." The Inuzuka said with a smirk, causing Naruto to grin a bit as he rubbed his nose in pride.

"Yeah, well, it's not ALL that cool..." Naruto said, a slow grin forming on his face. "What about you, ya seem to be rather interested in it, knowledgeable too." The Uzumaki asked, Kiba shrugging.

"You kidding? One of the big aspects of Inuzuka training is getting along well with your nin-ken." Kiba began, Akamaru barking excitedly. "Why, Akamaru and I would be forced to come back here, and not be allowed to head back home till we brought back somethin' dead." Kiba explained, remembering rather painful instances of punishment from his mother should he try to skip on the exercise.

"Heh, what, you keep dragging a little bunny rabbit home?" Naruto asked, Kiba scoffing.

"You kidding me? I brought entire burrows of rabbits home at one time!" Kiba said proudly, Naruto merely chuckling.

"Oh yeah, you ever here of that old saying 'kill two birds with one stone'?" Naruto asked, before pointing to himself. "Did it!" The blond thief boasted, the Inuzuka waving it off as he prepared another example, before Shino coughed aloud to gather their attention.

"Do I have to remind you two that we're currently in the middle of a training exercise that, by all means, we're losing?" Shino asked the two hunters, both Naruto and Kiba sweat dropping as they recovered themselves. "I've been grouped up with idiots..." Shino muttered under his breath, before rubbing the bridge of his nose.

'Still... these two appear more about moving around the forest, even more so than I do...' The Aburame thought with a sigh as he looked up to the two.

"Seeing as how you two are the......... 'experts' in hunting..." Shino began, using experts in the lightest way possible. "Perhaps it would be prudent for you two to lead the rest of the way..." Shino said in a tone that was obviously disturbed with the word choice, Naruto and Kiba just looking at Shino with a confused look... before smirking.

"This'll be fun..."

---------- Middle of the Woods Adjacent to Team 8 Training Grounds ----------

"Come on... come on Hinata, wake up..." Sakura said to her knocked out group-member, shaking the dark blue-haired girl as she tried to bring her back into the world of the conscious. "Damn it Naruto... your thick head knocked her right out..." Sakura muttered, laying Hinata down slowly as Sasuke slowly approached.

Sasuke had to say, he was rather pleased with his test of the jutsu. During practice back at the Uchiha Clan Compound he had figured out that the initial explosion of energy would strike out at everything within a few feet, and suspected that the sparks would strike out... what he had not seen coming was the fact that the sparks would arc from target to target as long as they were nearby. The Uchiha knew he needed to continue working with it... but that use showed that the initial burns were worth the effort.

Sasuke shook his head, returning his focus to the present as he looked at the two kunoichi.

"I suppose she's not waking up soon, right?" The onyx-eyed Genin asked, Sakura merely nodding her head in affirmation, causing Sasuke to sigh. "Great... " Sasuke said as he walked over to one of the trees, leaning up against it. "We're in the hole then: Naruto and Kiba are bound to recover sooner rather than later, and Shino can still fight... somewhat." Sasuke said, rubbing the bridge of his nose. Sakura nodded as she slowly stood up and walked around, checking around for any of the other members of the group.

"Well... maybe we should get out of here and then come up with a new plan. I really don't like being in the middle of the woods with those guys possibly up and about." Sakura said, knowing her blond teammate's skill with stealth and various other skills would only be served by the thick forests. A rustling of leaves was heard as Sakura and Sasuke's attention was snapped over to Hinata, seeing Kiba stand over the dark blue-haired girl.

"Gee, sounds like a nice idea, except you're a tad bit late for that." Kiba said with a bit of a smirk, Sasuke and Sakura immediately tensing as they looked at the dog-user.

"Where the hell did you come from?" Sasuke asked, the only response from Kiba being the upward jab of the Inuzuka's thumb. The two opposing Genin blinked as they suddenly looked up, Sasuke greeted with empty space, while Sakura's field of vision was taken up by a sudden dash of-

WHAP!

The Street Fox of Konoha landed right on top of Sakura, the unconscious pink-haired kunoichi's head underneath Naruto's foot as he smirked over at Sasuke.

"That's two for three teme..." Both hunters said as they cracked their knuckles, Sasuke pulling out a kunai as he slowly backed away from them, the 'top of the class' Genin feeling very claustrophobic.

"What, you two think you can take me?" Sasuke asked, though his voice lacking its normal confidence and strength. Surprisingly, Kiba and Naruto shook their heads, before pointing behind Sasuke.

"Nope, but he can." They both said quizzically as Sasuke blinked, turning around... to be greeted with the sight of Shino's palm in his face.

"Remember me?" Shino asked, Sasuke not able to even begin scratching quickly enough as the pre-born kikaichu insects swarmed on top of the Uchiha's skin, Sasuke immediately scratching at every surface of his body to try and force the bugs off of him. Slowly Sasuke's movements began to die down, and a few seconds after that they ceased all together, as the bug-covered boy fell over onto the ground, unconscious.

The three unlikely trio looked down upon their unconscious foes as Shino's insects returned to him, Naruto and Kiba smirking quite widely as they pumped their fists into the air.

"Alright! Talk about comeback!" Kiba shouted, Akamaru suddenly popping out of Kiba's coat in order to bark in affirmation of his partner's exclamation.

"Seriously, I'm going to be able to rub this in Sasuke-teme's face for days!" Naruto shouted along with Kiba, the blond laughing excitedly as Shino merely nodded.

"Indeed, though it seems my initial assessments of you two were proven rather incorrect… you are capable of more than the roles of being mere distractions." Shino said, causing both excited Genin to nod... before suddenly looking insulted. "Take that as you will." The Aburame said with a shrug, beginning to walk back towards the clearing. "At any rate, Uzumaki, create some Shadow Clones to carry these three back." Shino ordered, Naruto's right eye twitching... before making the cross seal.

"Whatever." Naruto said as three copies of him appeared, each picking up the unconscious members of the opposing team. "So, where were we?" Naruto suddenly asked Kiba, who tapped his chin.

"Let's see, you were boasting about killing two little birds with one measly stone... really pathetic if you ask me especially when you consider I did the same a while back, but instead of throwing rocks, I had Akamaru go up and tear 'em up, isn't that right boy?" Kiba said as he pet his nin-kin, Akamaru barking in a boastful manner as Naruto just waved it off.

"Whatever, the birds were my smallest accomplishment ever. One time, I tricked a snake into biting a rubber-ball, and its teeth got stuck in it." Naruto said with a grin, Kiba just shaking his head.

"You actually had to get the snake's teeth stuck before going for a kill? One time Akamaru found this big old snake out in the middle of the woods, and we went after it with nothing but my bare hands and Akamaru's fangs." The Inuzuka boasted, Akamaru showing off his so called fangs. The back and forth would go on for several minutes, each Genin listing off an animal they killed and how they killed each, the two boys trying to outdo each other when it came to stories. Needless to say the person this irked most was Shino, who not only was forced to listen for the entire time while they walked back, but also couldn't have cared less about the topic of conversation the two were talking about.

Meanwhile, Kurenai and Kakashi were awaiting the return of the Genin, Kakashi somewhat more patiently than Kurenai. While Kakashi was content to just reading his book, Kurenai was tapping her foot, becoming somewhat nervous at the possible result of the conflicts that could've taken place in the woods.

"You know, I heard somewhat stress is pretty bad for you." The silver-haired Jounin commenting idly, flipping a page in his book as Kurenai gave him an annoyed look.

"At least I'm actually somewhat worried about them." The female Jounin said, Kakashi just shrugging.

"Why worry? It's not like they're going to kill each other." Kakashi said, Kurenai sighing as she shook her head. "They seem fine to me." Kakashi said suddenly, Kurenai's head snapping up to observe Shino, Kiba, and Naruto coming out of the woods, followed by three Naruto clones carrying the unconscious bodies of the other group. "By the way, you were right; I did think they had a chance." Kakashi said with a chuckle, Kurenai giving him an incredulous look as the silver-haired Jounin put his book away, clapping as he watched the conscious Genin approach.

"Alright you three, excellent work: you managed to knock your opponents unconscious despite a terrible start." Kakashi said with a curved eye, the three conscious Genin sweat dropping as the Naruto clones laid down their unconscious counterparts.

"Gee, thanks for the compliment Kakashi-sensi..." Naruto said, the cycloptic Jounin shrugging.

"I call them as I see them, and frankly, I did see bad work from you three at the beginning of this." Kakashi began, Kurenai quickly jumping in to comment.

"Kakashi's being blunt, but is still quite right: your lack of teamwork at the beginning of this exercise, had things not turned your way with the... accidentally knock-out of Hinata." Kurenai said, pointing at Hinata. "You three would've most likely lost the exercise, and you three would be the ones carted around." Kurenai began, the three Genin as the female Jounin continued. "And had you exhibited such sub-par teamwork out in a real mission, a worse fate than merely being knocked unconscious could have awaited you." Kurenai finished up, Naruto and Kiba looking a tad nervous as Shino just stood still and silent.

"The good news is that you did manage to pull together... meaning you learned something from the exercise." Kakashi said, before pointing at Sasuke, Sakura, and Hinata. "These three also worked rather well from beginning to end... so I'd have to say the exercise was a success all around." Kakashi said, a curve once again reaching his eye as the three Genin nodded. Kurenai, with a small smile of her own, moved over and picked Hinata up.

"Well, we'll be on our way, missions to do after all." The female Jounin stated, Kiba groaning in disappointment as he waved back at Naruto.

"Later then, Fox... I'll tell you about my many amazing exploits another time." Kiba said with a smirk as Naruto just shook his head.

"Whatever dog-boy, you just keep telling yourself they're amazing." Naruto fired back, both Genin chuckling a little as Kiba walked over to Kurenai, Shino shaking his head as he too began walking.

"Until another time, Uzumaki." Shino said in his normal monotone, the Aburame leaving Naruto blinking as the three walked off, a thought striking Naruto as he suddenly shouted.

"Hey, tell Hinata sorry about knocking her out!" Naruto shouted, Kurenai waving back at the blond as Naruto nodded, Kakashi, underneath his mask, smirking at his student. The silver-haired Jounin remained silent on his thoughts, as he lugged Sakura and Sasuke up onto his shoulders.

"Well.... judging by the huge lump on Sakura's head and the... bug bites on Sasuke.... I'd say these two are going to be out for a while..." Kakashi said, garnering Naruto's attention. "Since just taking one of us out on missions would be a little ridiculous, I'm going to go ahead and call off missions... reward for winning." Kakashi commented with a curved eye, Naruto smiling brightly. "Just expect twice as much, and twice as hard, training tomorrow." The silver-haired Jounin added quickly, Naruto face-vaulting into the ground as his good mood was suddenly dashed.

"See you tomorrow Naruto." Kakashi said as he too began walking off, the Street Fox merely waving from his position on the ground. Tomorrow... was going to be a bitch....

---------- Later that Night ----- The Hyuga Compound ----------

The night was humid. Despite the sun no longer being up, and the moon having gracefully replaced the ball of fire in the sky, the warm air of the Konoha night was still causing discomfort among many around the city. One of the people made so uncomfortable by this unusual humidity opened her window to try to let some air into her room, Hinata standing at the window as she overlooked the night sky. The Hyuga Heiress sighed in a bit of relief as most of the hot air escaped from her room, replacing it was a somewhat cooler atmosphere.

Hinata smiled lightly as she looked out at the star-dotted sky, smiling slightly as she recalled the early parts of the day she was conscious for. Hinata had not expected Kurenai to have arranged for a joint team-training exercise that morning, and was pleasantly surprised when she found out the team they would be training with was Naruto's team.

'Naruto-kun...' Hinata thought with a small blush. She still recalled how excited her crush had seemed to see her, and how energetically he told her about the events that had taken place before they had seen each other. Even though Hinata had been mostly silent, just the fact that she was talking to him perked her up. After all, she, along with Neji and his friends Tenten and Lee, had been a part of the old 'Street Fox Fan Club' since... well, for her, since the snow day all those years ago.

Her face turned an even deeper shade of red when she remembered those days. Naruto's will, his strength of spirit, and his always upbeat attitude were what had attracted Hinata to him, seeing someone who she knew must have led a tough life go so far, and try too hard to get beyond it... it was the kind of strength she wished to see in herself. Sure, he was a thief, and yes he stole... but that didn't matter to her.

'He only did it to survive... he was never selfish..' Hinata thought, smiling as she did. That was something that the club had been built on: the idea of Naruto as an honorable thief, just stealing what he needed, what he couldn't do without, and never going beyond that, never giving into that temptation... or, at least, that's what Lee, her cousin, and Tenten always talked about back then. With a small giggle Hinata walked away from her window, preparing to try to go back asleep when, rather suddenly, she heard footsteps run by her window.

Hinata's head snapped towards the window, her eyes blinking as she heard the footsteps slowly distance themselves. The Hyuga Heiress blinked a few times, torn between just ignoring the strange occurrence, or just letting her curiosity take over and check it out. The young kunoichi, curiosity winning the match-up, slowly walked over to her window and looked out both ways, noticing a shadow running towards the back of the Hyuga Clan Compound.

Hinata began to feel a little nervous as she climbed out of her window onto the ledge the shadow-figure had run across, slowly following it as the shadow jumped off into the back of the compound. The indigo-haired girl slowly made her way across the ledge, her eyes slowly peaking over the ledge to look. The shadow figure had snuck its way into the gardens, and was slowly making its way over to one of the large statues that decorated the Clan Gardens.

Hinata's eyes widened as the shadow figure ducked beside the statue, the figure bringing its hands together for, what Hinata assumed to be, a seal. With a quiet 'puff' three copies of the shadow figure suddenly appeared around the statue, Hinata barely hearing the whispers of 'careful' coming from the multiple figures. Hinata squinted her eyes, trying to make out the figure. Slowly, Hinata brought her own hands together, flashing through seals to activate her Byakugan, to get a better view.

"Byakugan..." Hinata whispered as her eyes activated, her eyesight extended and cleared greatly. Hinata was barely able to withhold a gasp of surprise as her eyes were forced to watch as four copies of Naruto slowly began lifting the garden statue up off of its platform, and slowly carrying it over to the garden walls. Hinata was stunned beyond all measure as she slowly watched her crush cart the statue over to the wall and then created more clones, the new clones helping to lug the statue over the wall, and out into the streets.

Hinata sat on the ledge, her eyes wide as the Byakugan just deactivated on its own. Slowly, Hinata's mind began to work again, as slowly her thoughts began to churn out.

'Wh-why did Naruto-kun do this? He bragged about being able to purchase things own his own now, why steal again? How long as he been stealing? Who has he been stealing from? Why steal from us? Did he not notice me seeing him?" Hinata thought... as that last thought suddenly snapped a whole new series of thoughts. 'What if he continues this? What if someone else sees him... catches him? He wouldn't be allowed to be a ninja anymore... he would be in jail...' Hinata thought as she sat up.

"I-I-I have to do something to try and help..." Hinata said as the thought of talking to Naruto flashed across her mind. Of course, the thought as immediately followed up with her breath catching in her throat.

"I... I can barely talk to him when we're just talking in general..." Hinata said aloud, shaking her head as she lowered her gaze. Hinata sat there for several moments, desperately trying to think of something, before thinking. "M-Maybe I should tell someone... someone who'll try to help... who can help..." The unnerved Hyuga thought as she shakily nodded her head, standing up as she thought of whom to talk to. The shy girl stopped by her room, putting on a jacket quickly before running off into the village.

Hinata ran for several minutes, asking a few night owls directions along her way before arriving at a large apartment complex. After inquiring a room number, Hinata ran up several flights of stairs to one of the upper-floors, before running through the halls, finding the room she wanted. Hinata first knocked softly on the door, and when unable to get any sort of response, knocked again, only much harder.

"Hold on..." A tired response came from within the room, shuffling and banging noises coming from within the apartment. After a nerved-wracking minute of waiting, the door slowly opened, one tired looking Kakashi Hatake looking down at Hinata, his left eye uncovered but closed, while his mask still covered his face. The silver-haired Jounin blinked his right eye, yawning as he rubbed his eye.

"Hinata? What are you doing... it can't even be two o'clock..." Kakashi murmured, before noticing how shaken the young girl was.

"Y-Y-You're Naruto's sensei now... please... I need to tell you something... he needs help..." Hinata said , stammering as she spoke, Kakashi's eyebrows narrowing as he slowly moved out of the way.

"Come in, and tell me what happened." The Jounin said reassuringly, Hinata nodding as she slowly enterred the Jounin's apartment.

---------- The Next Day ----- Team 7 Training Grounds ----------

'Dear Kami Naruto...' Kakashi thought to himself as he looked at his students training, keeping a closer eye on Naruto. Kakashi's and Hinata talk last night greatly surprised Kakashi, whom had been about as clueless of Naruto's renewed thieving behavior as, he would assume, almost everyone in Konoha was. Furthermore, the boy wasn't just stealing food and clothes, he was stealing, judging from his theft at the compound he was now robbing people of very valuable goods.

Kakashi knew that Naruto could end up in a lot of trouble if he ever got caught by anyone with a less than favorable opinion of him. Kakashi had brought the group to the training grounds to give himself some room, if he could take Naruto to the side while Sakura and Sasuke were busy training, the likelihood of them overhearing the conversation would diminish greatly. The silver-haired Jounin took a deep breath as he slowly walked towards Naruto.

'Alright Kakashi, no sweat, you can talk to him about this. Sure, the personal aspects of being a teacher is what you were hoping to avoid in the first place... sure you have about as much social skill as your average corpse... sure you have absolutely no idea what you're students life been like up to this point, and you couldn't possibly fathom why he's stealing again in the first place, and really can't imagine asking how without stumbling all over yourself... and you really have absolutely NO idea what you're doing right now.' Kakashi though as he began sweating, blinking as each thought made him slump more and more.

"Kakashi-sensei, what's up?" Kakashi suddenly heard, causing the Jounin jump a bit. Unknowingly Kakashi had walked up to Naruto during his thinking.

"Ummm... well, Naruto, umm... I was thinking... umm... you see..." Kakashi started off, barely able to get a word out as Naruto blinked a few times, his hands locked in the final seal of the Gust Jutsu.

"Hold on a second Kakashi-sensei." The blond said quickly as Kakashi only nodded, hoping to use the quick break to think. Naruto quickly shout the name of the jutsu, slamming his hands together as a small, but fast, whirlwind left Naruto's palms, the gust heading swiftly over to the kunai still lodged within the tree. The hit was spot on and, after a few seconds of blowing, the kunai was blown from its position jammed in the tree, Naruto and Kakashi staring dumbly at the freed weapon.

"AHA! FINALLY! YES! FINALLY GOT THAT FUCKING KUNAI OUT OF THE TREE!" Naruto screamed and hooted and hollered, jumping up and down in celebration as Kakashi just chuckled.

"So you did." The silver-haired Jounin said, momentarily smiling at his student... before Naruto looked over at his sensei with a curious look.

"Anyway, you wanted to say something Kakashi?" The blond asked, Kakashi freezing as he remembered his original reason for walking up to Naruto. Kakashi mumbled for several seconds, sweating a bit as he tried to form coherent thoughts on the matter. After a failed minute of murmurs and coughs, Kakashi just stopped, and chuckled.

"Oh, I was just going to tell you how well you were doing, I think it might be time to get you up onto another level of jutsu now." Kakashi tried to save face, the effort working as Naruto grinned widely.

"Really, awesome!" Naruto shouted again, the blond ninja obviously excited.

"Indeed. Now... go get Sasuke and Sakura, mission time." Kakashi said, Naruto only nodding as he ran off to his two teammates. Kakashi just stood there for a moment, before slapping his hand onto his face. "Ugh... sensei would've been so much better at this...." Kakashi said, shaking his head as he sighed.

"Oh well.... I'll get another chance to talk to him soon enough..." The silver-haired Jounin sighed, shaking his head as he looked up at his students... the full weight of being a teacher finally reaching the man's shoulders.

R&R

Song Omake 1

(Alright... there are so many people in this Omake, I'm going to have to do this in a different style this time)

"Hello"- Normal Speech.

Character Name: Hello- Singing

Naruto smiled as he and his clones slowly hefted the statue over the Hyuga Clan wall.

"Alright guys, come on, just one... more... heave!" Naruto said as his clones tossed up the statue, Naruto barely catching the huge thing... before falling back over the wall, and onto the ground...

Or, he would've fallen onto the ground, had the ground not given way out from underneath him. Naruto and the statue slid all the way done some sort of tunnel, the statue and Naruto tumbling down before falling out of the tunnel... and onto a pile of gold. Naruto shook his head as he looked around, his eyes going wide as he looked. He had landed into a cavern, and in that tavern was mountains of loot and gold and treasure. Naruto, still holding onto the statue, slowly slid down the large pile of gold, before he hit the ground.

"Well, well, about time you arrived young man." Naruto heard as he slowly turned, greeted with the sight of a large group of twenty people standing in front of him. "Allow me to introduce us..." An older man at the front of the group of twenty started. "We are the Twenty Thieves, and I am the leader, Cassim." Cassim began, as he slowly began pointing at the other members of the gang.

"This is my son, Aladdin, these young men are Yahiko, Yutaro, Red X, Yami Bakura, Miroku, Yusuke Urameshi, Musica, oh, and you from canon's Part 1." The various named persons waved at Naruto, who merely blinked at his 'canon self'.

"This gang right here is the Royal Flush Gang, King, Queen, Jack, Ace, and Ten." The five members of the gang waved at Naruto, who meekly waved back.

"These lovely ladies are Yuffie Kisaragi and Misao, while this big monster here is Bowser and this man is the Cookie Crisp Robber." Cassim introduced these last four, Naruto counting over and over again.

"Wait... that's just nineteen." Naruto said, as Cassim nodded.

"Indeed. Nineteen pick-pockets, kidnappers, shop lifters, thieves, and many other various acts of larceny... we want you to be the twentieth." Cassim said as Naruto just blinked, pointing to himself in a questioning manner. "Yes, you. You certainly have the prerequisites down, and your skill is good enough... you should join us. All this loot is shared between us, and we keep an eye on each other's backs... so, are you in or out?" Cassim asked, extending a hand out to Naruto.

Naruto looked at Cassim's hand a bit questioningly at first, looking around at the treasure for a few seconds... before shaking Cassim's hand.

"Alright, I'll join." Naruto said as the entire group roared in celebration, the individual members walking up to him.

Yahiko: Congratulations bub,

you've joined the club!

Yutaro: And ev'rybody here agrees!

We've got the finest troupe of very sneaky snoops!

All: Welcome to the 20 Thieves!

Naruto shook various hands, as suddenly the members began tossing him around a bit.

Red X: A fraternity of thugs that you can trust!

Red X said as he pushed Naruto towards the female members of the group, whom were busy kicking Miroku around.

All the girls: So long as you're not perveted sleeze!

Naruto was eventually caught, the Cookie Crisp Robber eying the statue that had come in with Naruto.

The Cookie Crisp Robber: We got room to spare, and you got loot to share!

All: Welcome to the 20 Thieves!

After much fumbling Naruto wound up in a seat, Misao coming up right behind him while he sat.

Misao: Always get to lie and cheat!

Hell, we'll even steal your seat!

Misao cheered as she suddenly pulled the bejeweled chair out from underneath Naruto's rear, the blond fell right flat onto his face, suddenly picked up by the Royal Flush Gang whom began putting ice on his face.

Royal Flush Gang: But we always aim to please!

We care for one another, you'll never miss your mother!

Suddenly, Yami Bakura, Miroku, and Yusuke dragged Naruto away, showing off various bits of loot gathered from around the cave.

Yami Bakura, Miroku, Yusuke: Scheming up a scam, out on the lam!

As quickly as they appeared, the three were crushed underneath Yuffie, Musica, and Bowser, whom took the loot they had and ran off.

Yuffie, Musica, Bowser: Taking whatever we please!

Red X: And if you like to lurk, you're going to love this work!

All: Welcome to the 20 Thieves!

Cassim suddenly appeared to drag Naruto off away from the insanity, Aladdin joining the two to walk around the mounds of treasure.

Cassim: Together we're the perfect team!

Larceny is our great dream!

Aladdin: Come and join our family tree!

Suddenly, Naruto's canon self from part 1 burst out from underneath a mountain of treasure, grinning widely as he looked around.

Part 1 Canon Naruto: LIVE A LIFE OF LEISURE! DRUNK ON ALL THIS TREASURE!

Naruto's canon self slid down the mound of treasure as the other thieves began to surround Naruto, each pointing their various weapons at him.

All: As an honorary member of the gang

That no one in time ever leaves!

Yami Bakura: You gotta snatch and sneak,

Musica: Or else your future's bleak.

Yusuke: We got a life time contract that you're bound to keep!

Bowser: Ya wanna save yer skin, you'd better fit right in!

The weapons were withdrawn as the dancing once again commences, Naruto beginning to wonder what the hell he had gotten into.

All: Wel, wel, Welcome to the

Wel, wel, Welcome to the 20 Thieves!

WELCOME!

('Welcome to the Fourty Thieves' original lyrics belong to the Disney Corporation)

Song Omake 2

Hello- Sasuke, Itachi, Tobi singing

Hello - Tobi Singing

Hello- Shino singing

Hello - All characters singing

Hello- Hinata, Sakura, Ino, Tenten, Temari singing

In the lot of a large studio stood a single water-tower, a giant 'K' emblazoned upon the tower. Everything was quiet and calm.. until the tower bust open, three figures standing atop of the remains of the tower.

It's time for Animeniacs!

Sasuke Itachi and Tobi sang as they jumped off the top of the tower, bouncing off the ground.

And we've been given quite a task!

To have you read this and relax,

while not stabbing each other in the backs!

We're Animeniacs!

Come join the Uchiha Brothers

Sasuke and Itachi began, before Tobi jumped in front of them.

And their brother I am not!

Still we're brought together for this stupid one shot!

We'll get locked up in the tower,

if make you laugh we do not!

So you hang loose, while we vamoose

and make some sort of plot!

We're Animeniacs!

Tobi's a goof,

As Tobi danced, quite suddenly, Itachi began trying to stab him to death.

and Itachi cracks!

Sasuke's sneaking out the back

while Tsunade plays the sax!

We're Animeniacs!

Slowly but surely, several members of the rest of the cast began to come out of the buildings, each trying to get their own time.

Meet evil Orochimaru who wants to rule the Kishi-verse

Team 10 sticks together, while Asuma gets whacked by a curse!

Pairings wars continue, NaruxHina's still in first!

Kiba writes our scripts

Shino suddenly appeared, and tore the scripts Kiba had been writing to bits.

But he's a dip, why bother to rehearse?

Before Kiba could complain, the two of them were gathered up by the rest of the cast.

We're Animeniacs!

Sakura made out our contracts!

We're zany to the max,

while Jiraiya takes dirt naps!

We're Animeni!

Totally Insani!

The girls suddenly jumped in front of the rest of the cast,

Here's the show's namey!

Tobi, Sasuke, and Itachi jumped up and grabbed onto a large sign emblazoned with 'Animeniacs'.

AN-I-MEN-I-ACS!

Those are the facts!

('Animaniacs Theme' original lyrics is property of Steven Spielberg and Warner Bros. Studios)

Author's Notes (Original Jutsu)

Name: Spark Grenade

C-Rank, Offensive, Short Range (0-5m)

Users: Sasuke Uchiha

Hand Seals: Hare, Monkey, Ox

Description: After focusing any amount of lightning chakra into the palm, the
user can concentrate the lightning chakra into the shape of a stable orb.
This orb can be thrown and, depending on the amount of chakra placed into the
jutsu, will produce a blast in rough equivalence with the amount of chakra.