...well...this...I got nothin. I am liking this story way to much right now. That, and Sasuke and Anko's discussion in Word of Honor is really killing me right now. I swear, I will get another chapter of that out soon, but in the meantime, inspiration for this chapter just kind of...flowed out, so I let it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If you do, and you are not Kishimoto, please~ let me have some rights to it so that I can use your talents to draw this story because it'd be hilarious for me to see this drawn out.

Who Walks Among Dragons

He called to them from obscurity, and they replied like thunder. Both proved worthy of the others pride, and dreams. Now Naruto will grapple with a power none else had survived, and prove how his brand of unpredictability can change anyone.

"Dodge!"

"You cannot escape me forever!"

"Damn it Naruto watch where you're throwing those!"

The three genin were in remarkably different situations as their first 'official' training session began bright and early. After discussing the different options they could take, they'd had to decide on a few key points to make sure that things went smoothly.

First, Sasuke would be the 'head' of their group. When Naruto had tried yelling about it, he'd replied that him being the head just meant that if they needed to fall back he'd be the one they'd fall back on first. Naruto and Sakura were still equal, and therefore at some point they'd switch it up and see how they did in the others shoes. They further smoothed over Naruto's wounded ego by telling him he was their 'strategic advisor' and would be the first in most of their fights; being a tank with more chakra then both his teammates combined helped with that. Finally, Sakura was their 'intelligence gatherer', though there was still work to be done in that regard seeing how she didn't have much in the way of gathering information. Most of it was already in her head.

Which lead up to this point. Sasuke, figuring they needed to determine how well each would do in their respective positions, decided to have a mock fight where Naruto would attempt to prank them in any way possible. He wasn't allowed to use lethal force, but if they were in some way pranked and 'marked' within the hour, he won. Soon as Naruto had finished pooling his supplies, they discovered what the chunin's bane truly was.

"Paint can!"

While Naruto was notorious amongst his classmates as a troublemaker, none really thought much of his skills at pranks. Neither Sakura nor Sasuke thought of how quickly he'd come up with the 'prank' he'd pulled on Kakashi when they'd first met him seeing how they'd both simply thought it was childish; outwardly at least, inwardly was a whole other story. None of his classmates had truly been on the brunt end of a prank seeing how Naruto tried to keep those involving people more harmless then scrawling huge amounts of paint across the Hokage Monument. Having firsthand experience was teaching them a valuable lesson.

"Sakura he's –"

"I see it, I see it!"

You do not want Naruto as an enemy in a prank war.

Neither of them were certain how he'd gotten ahold of half these items; mostly since he'd had a child's allowance, and D-rank missions didn't pay that much. What they didn't know was that most of his supplies were acquired by those who didn't need them anymore, or were made by hand when Naruto had once had the free time. Thankfully he didn't anymore, but the leftovers were something else. Later, they'd regret forgetting his clones.

Ducking under a wire while Sasuke slid under it, Sakura couldn't help but pause to catch her breath. This training exercise was supposed to bring them closer together in a way, make them more united as a team. Instead, she was beginning to see red, and was certain that given the opportunity she'd end up killing Naruto. At least, she would if she could keep up with him. Throughout all this, she was starting to see a set of glaring weaknesses in herself and her teammates.

For herself, it was clear that even with chakra modifying her speed to keep up, Sasuke naturally out sped her. She already knew that both of the boys had her when it came to strength, but she didn't even have a speed advantage to counter that. With that, she'd found that her chakra was far too low to use as often as she'd like, meaning she was slowing Sasuke down to help keep her from getting hit and them losing. It was quickly humbling her as to how much she was relying on him.

On that note, Sasuke had his own issues as well. While he was more rounded out then her and Naruto, he was struggling with his own stamina issues after a while. He wasn't nearly hunched over like she was, but it was evident. Not only that, but with his counters she'd recognized what might've been a fatal flaw of the Sharingan; it could counter chakra and people, but even he'd nearly gotten clocked by the incoming paint cans on a couple occasions. Clearly the Sharingan was meant to act as a boon to its user in that it would allow them to imitate what their opponent was doing. With Naruto throwing paint cans, stink bombs, and –

"Chicken!"

…chicken feathers in some kind of adhesive they didn't have time to identify, Sasuke couldn't copy him, and even if he did he had nothing to throw anyways.

And finally, Naruto. He was less obvious to her, but she didn't need to analyze him seeing how she already knew what he needed to work on. Strength and speed he already had, but he had no form to strengthen what he already knew to become focused. He flailed his chakra around in massive quantities, neglecting the subtly of control. While he had strategy beaten into his head somewhere, it was easy to overcome them and dodge after a while. And from the way his ranged weapons were flying, if he improved his accuracy he'd have hit them far more often than he was now.

All in all, it was turning out to be a fruitful observation session for their first training period.

"Duck!"

"That's not a duck it's – nevermind!" Sakura shouted as she fell to the ground as another stink bomb flew over their heads.

"How did he even get this much stuff?" Sasuke asked, spitting out some grass as he got to his feet. "I mean…he has to run out right?"

"Um, well he will eventually, but I don't think he'll use them all anyways. He's going to save them so we have some stuff for later." Sakura replied, leaning against a tree while breathing heavily to regain herself. Turning to Sasuke, she moaned softly. "How much longer do we have to do this?"

Sasuke pulled out the alarm clock he'd brought, eyebrow twitching at the clock before he spoke. "Five more minutes."

"Damn, I was hoping I had more time. Oh well, time to end this."

Both of them froze as they slowly glanced up above them. There, sitting quite proud of himself, Naruto grinned like a Cheshire cat. In both hands, he held bags of something that seemed to sparkle in the light from the trees. Recognizing what they were, Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "You wouldn't dare."

As if to slap him upside the head, he was the first target of Naruto's assault. Tired and weary, he barely managed to dodge out of the way as it slammed into the tree behind him. In his exhaustion, he missed the root and tripped over it, falling to his face. Sakura raced over to him, trying to help him up to escape just as the second one impacted on them. Eyes clenched shut, they both winced and waited for whatever it was to die down before even breathing. Sakura wasn't sure what had happened, but Sasuke was cursing up a storm.

Landing in front of his currently blinded teammates, Naruto chuckled as he stared at his work. "Man, did I do good, or did I do good?"

Slowly opening her eyes, Sakura glanced around. Not sure what she was looking for, she paused when she noticed something shiny near her. Glancing down, she had to bite back a small giggle as she saw Sasuke covered in what appeared to be glitter; lots and lots of glitter. To make matters worse, since it had popped over him, the more part of it was in his hair. Which lead Sakura to remember that the glitter bag had also popped above her head, which she found to also be infested with plenty of glitter. For a girl such as herself, who prided herself on her looks and her hair maintenance, this was an absolute disaster. With barely concealed rage, she slowly stood to unleash it on Naruto.

Naruto, sensing impending doom, slowly backed up. "Now Sakura-chan…it was part of the training! Blame Sasuke, it was his idea."

"…he's right."

Sakura froze, and Naruto blinked as they both glanced at their normally broody teammate. "Eh?"

Sasuke sighed as he stood, glitter falling all over the place as he tried dusting himself off to the best of his abilities. "I did say that Naruto could use whatever he had as part of the training. As shinobi, we need to be prepared for anything thrown at us whether it's a kunai or paint cans. Glitter could almost be like…poison, or fire I guess. We expected him to keep throwing stuff directly at us, but when he switched it up, we weren't quite as ready."

Naruto scratched the back of his neck sheepishly, nodding vigorously. "Yeah…the glitter was the main point of the prank the whole time. I had been saving that for something special a while back, but then didn't get to use it since the only time I could…I wasn't able to." Naruto pouted, looking away with a sour look. "Stupid Iruka-sensei giving me detention."

"…which is another good skill Naruto's showing." Sasuke continued, getting a shocked look from them again. He was really starting to love the feeling of being the head of their group; seeing how Naruto soaked up his praise was a good boost to his ego. "He used a missed opportunity to make a new opportunity, which is another good shinobi skill. To be honest, we should try to keep that in mind with Kakashi-sensei. If the first attempt doesn't go over, we may have to hold onto some tricks for later."

Sakura nodded slowly, anger gone now that Sasuke was speaking. "Okay, that's a good idea." Pulling out a few pieces of paper, she smiled shyly. "I was observing a few things about each of us as we were fighting that we could work on. I could write them down, and we could all try to help each other work on them for the rest of the training."

"Oh? Did I have as many things I needed to work on as Sasuke?" Naruto asked, both to rub it in his face if he didn't, as well as to get a little boost to his ego.

"…actually I didn't find much yet." Sakura said slowly. "You both have different flaws, which will require different things to help with them. In all honesty, you both have the same amount of flaws, just in different areas." Thinking quickly when she saw both of them look at the other with wary eyes, she explained in a more academy level. "Really, Naruto is better at some things then Sasuke, but Sasuke-kun is better at things Naruto isn't. It makes you…close to equal, but I wouldn't know who's better."

"Well, seeing how I got you both with glitter, I'm putting that down as a score for me." Naruto said, grinning widely. Before he could let his ego grow too much, he found his chest suddenly hit by several handfuls of glitter. "Teme! What was that for!"

"Alibi." Sasuke said, only partly lying. "Glitter doesn't come out of our clothes that easy dobe, so we'll have to stay like this for a while. If you were the only one without it, Kakashi might suspect something."

Naruto frowned, scratching his head as he tried to piece that together before nodding. "Alright, fine. But you totally owe me ramen for this!"

"We aren't eating ramen after every practice." Sakura said, vehemently against constant ramen consumption in the way Naruto did. "We need to eat more than just ramen after all. I know a good place near the Hokage's tower that's supposed to be good. I heard they have a couple of good specials, including a couple dishes with rice balls and a grilled tomato dish."

Naruto looked like he was about to say something, but was cut off when Sasuke chimed in. "That sounds good to me. Eating something healthy every other day might help keep us stronger and more focused then if we just go to one place all the time."

Grumbling at being outvoted, Naruto slowly pulled out his wallet. Wincing, he glared at them. "You two are paying."

"…Fine. But if we're paying, you better be there with us." Sasuke said after a moment.

Sakura glanced between the two, silently wondering if she was imagining the small twitch both had that could've been a smirk. But that couldn't have been right; that'd have meant that they respected each other in some way. They'd started training together for less than one hour, how could he have gotten his respect that fast?

Just as she thought this, the alarm in Sasuke's hands began ringing. Jumping in surprise, he glared at the device while Naruto laughed at his reaction to it. Silencing it, Sasuke shoved it in his pocket and turned to Sakura. "Alright Sakura, let's hear what you have for us to work on."

Sakura nodded, handing both of them a paper. "Alright. We only have a little over and hour left, so here's where we need to start…"

"Yo! Sorry I'm late, but I was passing a burning bookstore, and they…um…I'm sorry, did I come to the right meeting place? What did I miss?"

Kakashi was not a man easily startled or confused. He prided himself on knowing more than most, although he made sure he kept up on that by being one step ahead of most. Now though, he was at a complete loss, and it was disturbing him.

All three of his cute students had been attacked, nay ravaged, by the evils of superfluous glitter. It clung to their clothes, was stuck in their hair, and from how Sasuke kept itching his neck, he had to wager that some had gotten under their collars as well. Not only that, but they looked beat and exhausted already. He hadn't even gotten to the part where he could watch them struggle to deal with each other during their D-ranked missions and yet they were tired.

Plus, no one had yelled at him when he'd arrived. How rude was that? Their usual greeting was nowhere to be found, and he already felt he missed it.

Naruto, seemingly the most coherent of them, finally noticed his arrival and waved halfheartedly. "Oh, hey Kakashi-sensei, you're right on time." Seeing Kakashi's look, he glanced down and chuckled. "Oh this? Well you see, we were on our way here and we met with Konohamaru. You see, he's taken my place as the Academy prankster…and…well we didn't expect the glitter cannon. Something about 'surpassing his boss' or something."

Kakashi nodded slowly. He'd heard that the boy was pulling pranks, but to have done it to Naruto who he considered his 'boss'…he had to applaud the boy. Like Naruto, he had a lot of guts doing something that most people wouldn't. He just hoped the kid hadn't started a prank war with his student; Konoha wouldn't hear the end of it.

"I see. Well, I went to the Hokage, and grabbed us a mission. It's D-ranked, but…" Glancing between them and their weary look of gratitude, he chuckled. "I don't think that'll be too much of an issue, will it?"

"No Kakashi-sensei." They all droned as one, getting up and following him as they moved to get to work.

Kakashi just shrugged as they did so. "What a weird start to the day."

As Team 7 performed their low leveled missions, they were beginning to notice something they'd never noticed before. The D-ranked missions were easy, but were manageable even when they were tired. Whether it was walking dogs (surprisingly without Naruto grabbing the biggest ones and getting dragged everywhere) or pulling weeds, the missions could be handled despite their previous training. Which led them all to a similar and startling conclusion; teams were supposed to train before missions!

In hindsight, it made sense. By training beforehand, they refreshed their team bond for the day, and saw if they'd learned anything new from their personal training. Then, using the missions, they could deepen the roles they had set previously. Sasuke led the group, but would fall back on either Sakura's input or Naruto's advice before going on. Upon realizing that he was being respected for what he said, and seeing it was valuable, Naruto made it a point to focus even harder to see what all he could spot and what he could do to make their jobs easier. While he did have wild ideas still, they were able to get him to actually listen to them as well. Apparently Naruto's respect for people was inversely proportionate to how much respect they showed him; a life lesson they were surprised they'd missed for so long.

For Kakashi, he wasn't sure whether to be pleased of confused by his team. Clearly the dynamic had changed for them, but even he was surprised how one day and one training session had changed them. A part of him believed that it was due to their joint humiliation of having to do every mission covered in glitter, but then he looked closer. Underneath it all, he saw what was working, and the small turnings of their teamwork made him smile. It was amazing what showing a little respect for each other could do in the long run for kids.

"Alright, I think that's enough for the day. Time to go home." Kakashi said once their final mission had been completed.

Naruto let out a small whoop of excitement, eyes gleaming as he cackled to himself. "That was actually kinda awesome! Hehehe, yahoo!"

"Naruto, quiet down." Sakura muttered, still embarrassed to have been seen walking around covered in glitter all day. "We get it, the missions were easy. Now can we please go get something to eat? I'm hungry, and I haven't eaten since breakfast."

Naruto paused, remembering their earlier promise. "Eh? Oh yeah! Lead the way Sakura-chan!"

Kakashi blinked as he watched them leave, somewhat disappointed they hadn't asked him to come along. As they rounded the corner, he pulled out his book and sighed. "They still have much to learn…but they're getting there now."

With the trio, they all ignored the confused looks they'd been getting from people as they passed and went to the restaurant. It was a quiet little place, but it had enough traffic around from its location near the Hokage's Tower to attract more shinobi customers then civilians. With how much they worked, and the kind of physical labor they performed, the restaurant had a prime location that was only bested by the Akimichi clan's own establishment not far from their clan compound.

As they entered, they were given a once over by the person behind the stand before getting a raised eyebrow at their appearance as well as their hiate's. "…rough missions?"

"Something like that." Sasuke muttered. "Table for three please. Actually, could you make that a booth?"

"Of course. We have one open near the back if you'd like." The man replied, motioning for them to follow. Quickly getting them to their seats, the man grinned as he handed them their menu's "Your waitress will be by in just a moment. In the meantime, look over your menu's, and see if there's anything you'd like."

Naruto watched the man leave, fidgeting every so often before looking at his menu. "…this is kinda weird. Not a bad weird, but weird."

His teammates glanced at him curiously, not sure what he meant by that. Seeing how he'd generally stuck to eating at the ramen stand they guessed that he usually chose to eat in simple places. A fancy type of establishment like this would be beyond his normal eating habits, and likely was somewhat uncomfortable. Seeing how he hadn't been kicked out on the spot, they guessed this place had been one that he hadn't pranked during his years at the Academy, which was a bonus for all involved. That, and they apparently had sympathy on all of them for the glitter that still sparkled on them from earlier.

Glitter is impossible to get off sometimes.

"So, what are you getting Naruto?" Sakura asked after a moment, clearly wanting to change the subject.

"Eh? Um, well." Naruto flipped through the menu, the variety and detail of some of the menu was getting him to whimper softly. "…I-I don't know. I've never had most of this so I don't know what's good and what's not. I mean, look at this!" He flipped the menu around and started pointing randomly at the pages. "Dumplings, tempura, teriyaki, yakitori…what do I pick? What's good, and what do I order first?"

His teammates stared at him, suddenly realizing something else that Naruto would have to work on; being in social environments. The way he was flailing around, and making more of a fool of himself then normal were quite effectual evidence of that. As they thought of this though, it occurred to them that Naruto wouldn't know anything about this type of environment. He'd grown up on ramen, seeing how it was cheap for him and Iruka to pay for. An establishment that was a bit fancier like this would be lower down on where he could go, making his need to learn how to act less as well.

Like hell they'd let that slid though; well, Sakura wouldn't at least.

"Naruto, calm down." Sakura said, her hands slowly lowering in a placating manner. "Just…take a deep breath, okay?"

Naruto frowned, but slowly did as instructed. His eyes were still shaking a bit as he looked over everything, but it was clear that he was staring to get ahold of himself.

"Good. Now, why don't you try asking again, without shouting it at us?"

Naruto slowly nodded, surprisingly calm as he looked over the menu. "Uh…what do you guys like? I mean, do you know what's good to get here?"

Sasuke, surprisingly, spoke first. "I'm a fan of the grilled tomatoes for an appetizer, then getting something like yakitori."

Sakura filed that information away for later use. "I like the tempura they have here myself. The dumplings aren't my favorite, so I don't usually get them."

"I like getting the teriyaki since it ends up filling you rather than just being a surface kinda food."

All three of them jumped slightly at the new voice, all turning as they saw that they had company. Standing at the end of their table, was Team 10; the new Ino-Shika-Cho combo, aka their former classmates, aka Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji.

Choji, the one who voiced his opinion, had a sagely look on his face as he nodded slowly. "Yes, the teriyaki they have here is quite filling, and ends up being really quite good no matter how many times I've had it."

"You also tend to only get it when we come here Choji." Shikamaru muttered, though there was a hint of humor to what he said.

Ino, ignoring her teammates, was struggling with her own inner turmoil. Every inch of her fan girl nature was telling her to jump on Sasuke and make Sakura as jealous as possible. However, with Sakura between the two, as well as the copious amounts of glitter on all three of them, her gossip nature took some precedence. "Hey there Sasuke-kun!" Some precedence. "What happened to you three? You look like you got hit by a glitter bomb. Did we miss something?"

Sasuke and Sakura glared at their blond teammate, who looked away and muttered something under his breath. From what she could hear, it had something to do with Konohamaru. This caused her to raise an eyebrow at this. The Hokage's grandson was in on this? Now she just had to know what was going on! Her curiosity needed to be satisfied!

"Okay, scotch over Naruto, I need to hear all about this." Ino said, shoving Naruto into a corner of the bench. He squawked indignantly at the treatment, but she ignored it as she slid next to him to stare at Sasuke. "So, details!"

Sasuke, not wanting to be directly across from a fan girl, while being next to his teammate who also happened to be a fangirl, scooted over to make more room on the bench as he glanced to her teammates. "Well, there's enough room if you two want to join us too you know." Never let it be said Sasuke wasn't all for dragging others down with him should the opportunity arise. "Besides, I don't think Ino is going to be leaving us anytime soon…unless you two have better things to do with your time?"

Already knowing what Sasuke was doing, but really not having any kind of excuse he wanted to make at the moment, Shikamaru sighed. "Troublesome." He muttered, sitting next to Sakura so that at the very least he wouldn't have to have Ino messing with him at all. Choji, one to follow Shikamaru's example if only because he had little else to do with his time as well, sat next to Ino. The girl was surprisingly fine with this, seeing how the short Naruto took up little space, which allowed all three of them to sit rather comfortably rather than be all pressed together.

"…um." All six of them glanced to the voice, blinking as they saw their waitress looking between them with a confused look. "I thought it was just one team of shinobi? Did Hiro mess up my table again?"

Ino politely smiled at her. "No he didn't, we just happened to be passing by, and decided to pop in on some old friends. I'm sorry if we threw off your numbers. If you'd like, we can move…"

The waitress, realizing just who the three were now that she got a good look at them, quickly waved off her suggestion. "No, no that's fine. It happens more often than you'd think with all the chunin and jonin that frequent this place. I just haven't had it happen quite as often with genin teams. They usually tend to be more competitive about their time, which means they don't normally…well, eat together. Or do much of anything together honestly."

Each of them at the table raised an eyebrow at that. It was almost funny how right that was as they slowly thought about it. All of them had trained together, played together, and in many ways been tortured – taught if you asked Iruka – and yet after all that they hadn't bothered to keep in touch at all. It was rather humbling to realize that they had drifted further apart then they'd realized within the last couple of months now that they were officially genin.

"Y-yeah well, it was a spur of the moment thing." Ino replied dismissively. "We'll just borrow their menu's when their done and order together, so…could we have another couple minutes?"

"Of course Yamanaka-san. Please, take your time." The waitress said with a small bow before she scurried off to one of her other tables.

Choji, sitting back as he glanced at them all as one of the only two who wasn't really taken aback by what the waitress had said, was the first to speak. "So~ what have you all been doing since the Academy? Got any neat missions done lately?"

Naruto, the other person not as affected, chuckled as he replied. "Yeah, we've done some really neat stuff lately! Plus, we're starting to – ow! What was that for?" Naruto shouted, glaring across the table at Sasuke. Getting another kick, Naruto flinched as he realized that it was Sakura who was kicking him under the table. Grumbling, he sat back and crossed his arms with a pout.

Ino, feeling the slight disturbance under the table, raised an eyebrow at this. With a small smirk, she glanced at Sakura. "Aw, so you've finally got him wrapped around your finger? That's so cute of you. I bet Sasuke's more than happy that you're a couple now."

Sakura glared at Ino while Naruto blinked and glanced around looking very confused. "It's not like that Ino. Naruto don't know when he's being dumb, and Sasuke is too remind him sometimes." Eyebrow twitching, she subtly leaned closer to Sasuke, subtle flames growing around her as she spoke. "Besides, I have other things planned for the future."

Ino glared back at Sakura, feeling her own 'fan girl flames' grow as she leaned over the table with a sudden overly sweet smile. "Oh I'm sure, but as Shikamaru can tell you, no plan survives contact with the competition. Isn't that right Shika?"

"It's survives contact with the enemy Ino." Shikamaru replied lazily, ignoring the sideways glare he got for that. "And don't involve me in this. My hands are clean from this silliness, alright?"

Naruto, picking up on what he understood, slowly glanced between the two. "…wait, you two are enemies? Since when? Why wasn't I told about this." Naruto glanced to Sasuke. "Did you know about this?"

"Hn." Sasuke muttered, already his mind gone from table to preserve his sanity. Being in a room with the two of them was bad enough, but a booth where they had him boxed in was more than even he wanted to deal with. Maybe if he switched spots with Shikamaru he'd have a better chance of getting away…but then, he'd have to deal with them running after him. From what he'd seen from some of his stalkers, that might actually make things worse as long as the two of them were fighting.

"Don't talk to Sasuke-kun like that Naruto!" Ino hissed, the 'flames' almost seeming snake-like as she turned her glare onto Naruto.

Naruto blinked, unsure of what to make of this. Remembering Aku, he found himself talking before his mouth and mind had finished thinking through his spontaneous idea. "Yeah, not scary enough. Good effort though."

This caused everyone to blink, which made both Ino's and Sakura's 'flames' disperse as they stared at him. While far from the killing intent, a girl's 'fan girl flames' were often referred to as similarly potent, and could bring a lesser man to his knees. The fact that Naruto had simply brushed it off and then said that it was a 'good effort' had all of them stunned.

Feeling all the eyes on him, Naruto glanced at them with child-like innocence. "What?"

Ino, the most shocked by what Naruto had replied with, slowly poked Naruto. "Come again?"

"I said you're not scary enough." Naruto said, as though it were obvious. Clearly unaware of the confused looks Team 10 were giving him, he shrugged. "Besides, you don't even have anything creepy looking about you. I mean, throw some bandages on your face, or have a scarier smile and it might work. Oh! Maybe you should try looking like a zombie." A pause and a shiver. "Actually don't do that, that would be terrifying. Ghosts and zombies are like, distant cousins, so…yeah don't do that."

Being a girl, and having that childish vanity any other near thirteen year old might have, Ino slowly came to a conclusion that even Naruto wouldn't have come to. "Are…are you hitting on me?"

"What?!" Sakura shouted, head darting between the two. Quickly, it ended on Naruto with a scowl. "Naruto, how could you! This is not the time or place to be hitting on Ino-pig of all people!"

"Says Forehead over here." Ino said with a smirk.

Glaring across the table at each other, neither noticed Naruto pick up his menu and hum. "Yeah, I'd like the teriyaki chicken please. Choji made it sound good, so why not?"

Both girls slowly turned their heads to the head of the table, the waitress back and looking at them completely unperturbed by their looks. "And what would you ladies like to order?"

Realizing that they were the last ones to order, they had the decency to shrink back and look somewhat ashamed of themselves for having missed her arrival. "Tempura please." Both of them said simultaneously. "Hey, don't order what I ordered! I ordered it first! Why you –"

"Troublesome women." Shikamaru said with a sigh, digging his pinky into his ear. He clearly needed to reevaluate his seating position seeing how Sakura was much louder then he'd remembered her being in the Academy.

Sasuke was still off in his own little world, most likely where he was plotting various ways to train later that evening, so he wasn't paying attention after he'd ordered. Glancing across the table, he slowly brought himself back as he thought of something. "Hey dobe."

Naruto blinked, turning to Sasuke with a raised eyebrow. Sasuke rarely, if ever started a conversation, so he was curious as to what he had in mind. "Eh? Yeah teme, what's up?"

Ignoring the two girls shouts of indignation at Naruto's way of referring to their 'dear Sasuke-kun', he posed the question that had come to his mind. "What are you planning on working on later? Training I mean."

Sakura's rivalry suddenly hit the backburner as she too realized what Sasuke was referencing. Unlike herself and Naruto, Sasuke had several techniques he could practice and learn on his own. Having a clan with a few leftover techniques was a boon at times. Sakura herself was more than capable of going into a shinobi bookstore and learning from scrolls herself as well, seeing how genin level jutsu weren't offlimits, and there were some that occasionally were useful. Naruto on the other hand, didn't generally have the patience for scrolls, which meant that anything he was learning was better done hands on. And he didn't have anyone to help him with anything like that.

Not that they knew of at least.

Oblivious and completely missing the semi-worry in Sasuke's question, Naruto just chuckled and scratched his cheek. "Actually, I have to meet with someone later. I…met them, a bit ago, and…convinced one of them to train me." Naruto, ignorant as he normally was, still held onto his thoughts from two days previous about keeping his contract secret for now. He'd reveal it when he'd learned enough stuff that he could show to his teammates, but not until then. On that note, "Oh, and if I show up looking like I got attacked by a…giant dragon…don't worry, that's normal."

Everyone at the table stared at Naruto for a moment, his strange addition confusing them. After a moment though, they shrugged it off. Whatever Naruto was learning was his prerogative, and if whoever had an interest in him threw something like a giant dragon at him, who were they to judge? Had they the skill, Sakura and Ino likely would've done the same after a couple of Naruto's comments.

Seeing how Naruto had someone who was instructing him, Sasuke's gaze slowly was cast downwards as he took a moment to think about that. "Someone's taken an interest in Naruto? Why? He said them, so it's more than one person, but why's only one been convinced to train him? Are they strong? If Naruto's not joking, they sound strong but…" Sasuke grumbled, pinching the bridge of his nose gently as he tried to clear his head. The enigma of Naruto was not something one could delve into lightly, and he needed more time to process everything.

"Sasuke-kun? Are you alright?"

"Hands off him Forehead! Come on Sasuke, you know you can tell me anything."

"Back off Ino-pig!"

The two fan girls weren't helping him keep a clear head about the matter either.

Shikamaru was having similar thoughts, but had dismissed them almost as quickly as being 'to troublesome' to deal with right now. If someone was teaching Naruto, that was fine by him. He'd definitely be keeping an eye on him for future reference though, just to make sure that he didn't catch him off guard with something out of the blue.

As their food arrived, they all dropped their aggression and odd tendencies as they graciously broke their chopsticks and muttered a quiet "Itadakimasu." The only new difference was that, upon tasting the food, and mulling it over, both Naruto and Choji had simultaneously began digging into their meal. Like a silent challenge, they looked as though they were attempting to out eat each other almost instantaneously. For the other members of their team, they all silently agreed that if nothing else, it was good that some things never truly changed.

Off in the corner, Shin and Sai sat at the table and enjoyed a meal of their own, casually glancing at the two teams eating together. Far more reserved in their eating habits, Shin decided to go over a few things with Sai as they ate. "So, which one do you think is cuter, the blond or the pink one?"

Sai silently glared at Shin, poking at his food as he sighed. "Shin, we aren't here to gawk at the kunochi, we're here on assignment, remember?"

"I'm sorry, but he needs us to be aware of the shinobi they are connecting with. Knowing which ones are pretty and which ones aren't is a step towards knowing who else we should…encourage them to meet with." Shin said, trying his hardest to wrap their mission and his current topic together.

He would get Sai to follow in his footsteps damn it! Sure Danzo had made it clear that he wanted them to be emotionless, but even Danzo knew he couldn't break everyone. It was why he'd added the seals to the back of their tongues; torture was possible, but to prevent them from speaking of even other Konoha shinobi seemed a bit much to Shin. Thus, he'd given up on completely blocking out his emotions, and instead kept them close enough that he could call on them as needed. They kept him inspired, curious, and sharp in many situations. It also left him with a continual appreciation for the female form.

Which led him to Sai. Unlike himself, Sai was young, and didn't understand all the things he had figured out. Try as he might to help him learn and understand, Sai had been through enough emotional suppression training to be a bit harder to get him to call his wayward emotions back up. If there was one thing he'd learned from Danzo though, it was that there was more than one way to get a job done.

"…I cannot see the blond one clearly, as she is being blocked by her large teammate." Sai said after a moment, shaking his head. "And after what we have observed, neither one is very pretty. The pink ones overly large forehead makes me wonder why she wears her headband to make it stand out, while the blond tries too hard to show off her skin. To be honest, neither are 'cute' as you would say.

"Worse still, we have yet to see their skills in fighting, which would prove to show more about who they are. If they had combat prowess, I could stand to understand why either of them could be useful." Sai shrugged. "As it stands, I don't see anything redeeming about them."

Shin sighed, poking at his food. "You'll get it one day Sai. Anything about the others then?"

"…neither of the boys have anything I can really say about them." Sai said after a moment, frowning as he thought over what he knew. "They are from high clans like the blond girl, but I see little besides that. And with the way the pineapple haired one avoids his teammate, I wonder if he has the dick to even be near her."

Sai ignored the sound of Shin near choking on his food. When he'd calmed down, Shin slowly cleared his throat and stared at Sai. "…Sai, the term is 'he doesn't have the balls', which has nothing to do with having a…well having a dick."

Sai blinked. "Really? I always assumed –"

"We are not having this conversation here." Shin said, vehemently suppressing his flustered state as he attempted to keep a level head in regards to this. It was one of the things Sai had caught on that made him flustered, and at times he slipped it in to throw him off. Damn him and his ability to just brush things off.

Sai nodded, glancing back at the two teams. After staring for a moment, a look of deep thought crossed his face. Slowly turning back to Shin, he asked his question with a deliberately slow, and curious tone. "…their waitress…is rather nice looking. Would she be considered cute, Shin-senpai?"

Shin blinked, glancing at the waitress. Mulling it over, he nodded. "Yes, cute would be a good word. She's not quite 'hot', but definitely 'cute'." Pausing, Shin glanced back at Sai with a grin. "I'd go ahead and start sketching before she moves too much. Might be your best opportunity."

Sai's eyes widened as he nodded, quickly pulling out his art book and began scribbling in it. With only occasional glances, he worked on, diligently working to get over his weakness at drawing the female form.

All the while, Shin inwardly smile. "Yes Sai, continue making me proud. Soon, you will join me in 'observing' all the 'finer things' in this village."

"Shin-senpai, please stop chuckling like that. People are starting to stare…"

As the sun began to inch closer to setting for the day, Naruto finally managed to get away from his team and Team 10. He'd had a lot of fun with them, even if he'd lost his 'match' against Choji, and was looking forward to trying to meet with them again. The waitress had made a good point, and they were all more eager to see what they could do together now that they were genin.

Normally they'd blame their sensei for being irresponsible for not telling them about this beforehand, but then they were considered adults now. It's not their sensei's job to hold their hand anymore then a parent holds their child's hand after they've moved out and on with their life. It helped that Ino, Choji, and Shikamaru already knew this, though it did put a bit of a damper on Team 7's mood since they had just realized this.

Whistling softly, Naruto all but skipped as he made his way back to his house. Since he was just going to return to the summoning realm, he didn't need to go to a training ground like Sasuke or Sakura might. In fact, of everyone he knew, his training was likely going to be the most secretive since no one would be able to spy on him as he'd be in another realm altogether. This led to Naruto fantasizing about all the cool jutsu he'd be pulling out in the future, impressing the Hokage to the point he just gave Naruto his hat and let him be Hokage in his place.

Oh to be young and ignorant of what was coming.

Giggling at the thought, he raced home and quickly prepared himself. Biting his finger, he went through the hand seals and slapped them on his chest. "Gyaku Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Reverse Summoning Technique)!"

With a puff of smoke, his world shifted. Gone was the safety of his room, and in their place was the plateau of the mountain he'd been on when he'd first arrived in the realm previously. Taking a deep breath of the air around him, he grinned as he looked for the other dragons.

"Good to see you've returned Naruto."

Naruto turned around completely to face Shinryuu, scratching the back of his head as he chuckled softly. "Well of course I came back! No one can hold back the amazing Uzumaki Naruto when he's got something he's gonna do!" Naruto rubbed his hands together, slowly looking around. "So, where's Aku-sensei? I'm ready to get some real shinobi training in."

Shinryuu raised an eyebrow at Naruto's attitude. Realizing that Naruto had no idea of what was coming, he glanced in the air as he pondered what to do. It had been a hundred years since he'd last been awake, so the amount of entertainment was low during that time. Should he warn the boy, or let the entertainment unfold? Decisions, decisions.

Naruto, far more impatient, stared at Shinryuu while waving his hands to get his attention. "Oi! Hello, anyone there? Hey, hey where's Aku-sensei? Hello?"

…wait for the fireworks it was then.

"Don't worry, Aku will be here…soon." Shinryuu said, noting the quickly approaching black dot in the sky behind Naruto.

"Oh good." Naruto said, grinning widely. Hands linked behind his head, he rocked on his heels as he tried to keep from bouncing too much. Pausing in mid bounce, a thought came to Naruto's mind. "Hey, Shinryuu-san?"

"Hm? What is it Naruto-san?"

"What kind of training will Aku-sensei be giving me anyways?"

Blinking, and suddenly remembering that Naruto was in fact that he was a hatching – or as humans called them a child, Shinryuu sighed softly. "…self-preservation."

"…what?"

"You have five seconds. My advice, run."

Naruto suddenly looked a bit nervous, scratching his cheek as he chuckled nervously. "Shinryuu-san, what are you talking about? What do you mean 'self-preservation'? And why are you telling me to –"

The impact of something large behind Naruto got him to jump in mid-sentence. Before he could turn around, he felt a blast of hot are roll over his shoulders which made him wince as he realized just how close that 'something' was to him. Slowly turning to look behind himself, he locked eyes with Aku as the dragon stared down at him. Slowly, Aku's lips drew back to reveal very sharp sword-like fangs that were mere inches from him.

"…you heard him, run chew toy, run!"

Not needing any more push to do so, Naruto scrambled away from the large dragons as he raced down the plateau. As Aku reared back to give chase, Shinryuu raised himself slightly above Aku to make his presence known. "He is a hatchling Aku. Keep that in mind, that you do not maim him before we can begin further training."

"…yeah. Sure. No permanent damage." Aku muttered, ignoring Shinryuu for the most part before diving down after Naruto.

A second later, Shinryuu felt two more presences land beside him. "So, you managed to make it to watch the fireworks then?"

"Naruto verse Aku? He'll end up melted before it's over after what he said." Haru said, his tone even, but a small hint of worry on his face. "Of all the dragons to be taught by, why'd he have to pick Aku first?"

"Likely it has something to do with the fact he is a hatchling, and Aku made it sound as though he would be learning dangerous and flashy techniques." Shinryuu muttered, feeling the two gazing at him.

"Wait, you mean he's not even molted yet?" Raiu asked inquisitively, head tilted in confusion. "Well…that can't be right. The family only let summoners who were…what was it called again?"

"Chunin?"

"Yeah, right, that. They only let people who were that level sign our scroll so that they would learn our stuff faster."

Shinryuu sighed, knowing that the absence was showing now with their clear confusion. "Be that as it may…Naruto is barely any wiser then Musshu at this point."

"Oi, I can be wise!" Musshu shouted from Haru's hair, poking his head out. When he received a skeptical look, he slowly slunk back in and glanced away in an abashed manner. "I just don't choose to show it all the time. You know there is such a thing as being to wise. I think."

Haru ignored Musshu, watching the chase between Aku and Naruto with a keen eye. "…there is much that can be said about him from this alone. His dodging is pathetic, his speed is raw, and in all honesty, Aku could have eaten him from the start if it weren't for the fact Naruto is expecting training. He didn't even sense Aku before he had no chance but to run away."

"He's young."

"He's inexperienced." Raiu added helpfully.

"He is gonna get himself killed in a real fight like this." Musshu muttered, watching the screaming streak of orange flail to the side as Aku lunged for him.

Haru slowly glanced at his fellow dragons, each returning the look before three of them grinned. "Challenge accepted."

Musshu, the only one not getting what was going on, hopped off of Haru's head and waved his hands in the air to get their attention. "Hold on you guys. Can someone please back up and explain what ya'll are talking about?"

"He's practically a fresh student." Haru replied, watching Naruto scream as he barely leapt over Aku's jaws before he ran down Aku's back in an attempt to flee. "With little to no outside training to help him improve, we've been given a rather rare opportunity to cultivate a dragon summoner who is more than just a shinobi. He will become a shinobi who's entire arsenal is based around the techniques we will teach him."

"You are pathetic brat!" Aku rumbled with a deep laugh as Naruto ran up a mountainside to get above the pursuing dragon. "Clearly I should just end this and be done with this. You have no skills worth my time."

"YOU'LL REGRET UNDERESTIMATING ME!" Naruto shouted, now above Aku. Launching himself into the air, his hands moved to form an odd cross-like hand seal. "TAJUU KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU (Mass Shadow Clone Technique)!"

All dragon's jaws hit the floor as Naruto suddenly exploded in a cloud of smoke that then revealed a small army of orange that began raining down on Aku. While Aku was more than capable of handling an army such as this, the surprise factor and the way they all rained down was enough to momentarily overwhelm Aku and allow them to land on Aku as they attempted to beat the dragon up…with their fists.

"…can we keep him? Please~?" Raiu pleaded, eyes sparkling at the sight of the massive clone technique.

"That jutsu…produces solid clones. That means his chakra has to be…" Haru muttered, grinning at the sight. "Oh yes, he is going to be the perfect student."

"You want to call first bite?" Shinryuu inquired, he himself wondering what all he could add to the boy's arsenal.

"Hm, well –"

"Dibs! I call dibs, totally calling it!" Raiu shouted, giggling as Haru jumped a bit. When they gave Raiu looks of annoyance, all they received in return was a roll of the eyes. "Oh come on, he's totally got the stamina to keep up with my stuff, and if he's a hatchling, then my games won't seem so silly!"

"…"

"…"

"…you know she has a point." Musshu said helpfully. Raiu was known for being more childish then even most hatchlings at times, but no dragon could doubt that the method behind the madness was there, and it worked. Most of the time at least, and only when they didn't involve any kind of lightning. Being something of a living generator made trying to 'tone back' lightning a bit hard to do, which often made parts of mountains disappear.

"…how about we cycle days? That way we can all teach him something." Haru slowly proposed, remembering that Aku technically had dibs at the moment, seeing how their summoner had basically requested the training. "It'll…also allow us to give Naruto-san a chance to recover between Aku's…training."

"HOLY CRAP WHAT WAS THAT?!"

"Oh be quiet and be proud of yourself, I didn't hit you yet."

"YOU MELTED THE ROCKS WHERE I WAS STANDING, HOW DID YOU DO THAT?!"

"…for his…and our sanity's sake."

Down below them, Naruto was not entirely sure what to make of this 'training'. Clearly Shinryuu had been serious when he'd said the training was in self-preservation; having a large black dragon chasing you down with every intention of eating you at a seconds notice would kick a lot of one's fight-or-flight responses into high gear. Unfortunately, he was also pretty sure that Aku was toying with him, seeing how many times he'd thought he'd gotten away only to have his cover ripped away.

The tide had turned for a moment when he'd used his signature technique, but that quickly fell apart once Aku got back into gear and tore through them. Naruto was very glad he'd picked a spot higher up, seeing how many of his clones had been rammed into walls, flicked off the tail, and then others burst into…nothing, when Aku began breathing yellow 'fire' at them. Even Naruto was skeptical about that, since he was pretty sure that rocks don't make a hissing noise when fire hits them.

Which lead to Naruto's clear lack of self-preservation being evident. Instead of running more, or trying to hide, he was standing a short ways from the melted rock and looking at it curiously. The hissing had died down, but Naruto was still in awe of what Aku's 'fire' had done to it. He'd heard about dragons being able to breathe fire, but this was something new altogether.

"That…was so cool!" Naruto suddenly shouted, whirling around to Aku with something of a twinkle in his eyes. "Is that something I'll be able to do?"

Aku was beginning to get whiplash from Naruto's sudden mood swings. They'd all heard human hatchings could be volatile, but this was to the point of being ridiculously chaotic. One minute he was running, the next he was in a fighting mode, then scared and confused, and finally he was all giddy and excited. It was crazy, ridiculous to put it bluntly.

Aku was going to have so much fun with him.

"Hm, maybe if you're good." Aku replied with a small smirk. Naruto had no idea how much ego he was rubbing with his joy. After years of silence, hearing someone impressed by Aku's signature technique, and going as far as to be eager to learn said technique, it would do that for anyone's ego. "So far though, you've impressed me only once. Those clones…were not something I expected of you. However, once is more then I was expecting, so I suppose I won't eat you today chew toy. And since you've…entertained me, I suppose I should teach you something a bit more practical than simply running."

Naruto, catching the hint that he was going to learn something, leapt into the air and let out a loud whoop of excitement. He was going to learn something awesome! Imagination running wild, he could see all kinds of possibilities; breathing fire as Sakura fawned over him, flying through the air and laughing as all his former classmates gawked, and even becoming a large dragon himself and roaring as enemies screamed in terror before attempting to flee from his wrath. He was bouncing at least a foot in the air in excitement, before he realized that something…weird was going on.

Aku's eyes were closed, clearly concentrating on something. Before Naruto could ask what was going on, he heard something rumbling from deep in Aku's chest. Slowly, Aku's underbelly began to glow with a light that Naruto vaguely recognized as chakra. The chakra slowly spread through Aku's body, illuminating each scale as it was enveloped in chakra. Then, with a loud crack, the scales began to move.

Pulling forward, one onto the next, Aku's entire body appeared to be wrapping itself like cloth over itself, shrinking and forming itself into something Naruto couldn't recognize. Quickly becoming all but a tornado of chakra, Aku's scales and form began to take a more definite shape. And once Naruto began to recognize the shape, his jaw loosened as it began to drop rather quickly to the ground.

Before him was now a human-sized…person. Decked out in a sleeveless, all-black kimono, the figure slowly stood, swaying from side to side in doing so. Long, jet black hair was tied in a topknot/ponytail, thought which Naruto wasn't sure of, with two green 'chopsticks' slipped through the knot which looked like Aku's horns. The person's face was a pale green – almost indistinguishable from regular pale skin unless the sun hit it right, with piercing red eyes, and red flame-like markings spread around them similar to how Aku's scales looked normally. Finally, to top off everything –as well as to make Naruto further gawk – the kimono was rather loose, which meant that the swaying motion from standing meant that Naruto got an interesting view of her very womanly assets moving back and forth.

Aku, now in her human form, smirked as Naruto's eyes continued to look her over. Snapping her fingers in front of his face, she grinned as his eyes shot back to her face. "Well then gaki, if you're done gawking, we have work to do."

AN: Mwahahahahaha!

Maniacal laughter out of the way, here's a few things I wanted to quickly address.

First, Sakura's thoughts on Naruto's aim. This is actually me stepping into her shoes to make sure she didn't get that right. Oh sure, Naruto will need work, but she's only focusing on one thrown method. In the manga/anime, Naruto showed himself to be rather proficient in throwing shuriken, but not often with kunai. Think about it; Naruto almost hit Kakashi with two of them, and even if he had moved the fact that they were on target says something about how much he's practiced at that. He's even shown trying to emulate Sasuke's trick with them too, so this is a fact we've seen. That being said, kunai training, will have to be addressed. And by addressed, I mean I will have fun with sharp and pointy objects.

Second, the sensei's. A lot of people do the whole "sensei's get together", and while I like that I wanted something a bit different. That lead me to remember what Kakashi told Iruka; "They aren't you students anymore, they're my soldiers." Seeing how little he's trained them, I figured he wasn't entering them at the time so that they could pass, but so that they could learn "in the field" that they needed to work together so they could actually have a shot. As proven though, that team doesn't really care much for what others see as "normal". As such, I decided to do this my way; by throwing a few scenes in where I could get them to grow more. Character building is fun!

Also…people need to write more Shin and Sai. They are SO much fun. That scene practically wrote itself.

And finally…okay, how many people didn't see something like the dragons-becoming-people coming? Let me know, and if you didn't see it, I'll explain next chapter.

Until then, Guru out!