Academy Rematch

Students lined up one by one to see the biggest rematch of the week. It was always the most entertaining but poorest matchup of the day. The last loyal Uchiha, Sasuke Uchiha, always gave Naruto Uzumaki a face full of dirt. This was followed by numerous, colorful cursing and a chance to mock the class clown responsible for forcing class pop quizzes and harder tests.

Iruka could tell Naruto had changed. It was strange but not unwelcome. The boy's pranks had drastically diminished to once a week and even then it was minor. He was no better at creating clones, but there was a definite improvement in chakra control. Iruka's eyes strayed over to the new students. They were the biggest mystery of all. He could easily mistake their stances for a high-level chunin or low-level jounin. The white haired kid, especially, sent his nerves on end. Naruto's demeanor had changed with their coming. They were definitely behind Naruto's change.

"Next match, Sasuke Uchiha versus Naruto Uzumaki!" There was no boisterous shouting as Naruto confidently met Sasuke at the middle of the ring. Sasuke narrowed his eyes in confusion. The idiot had never acted like this before, so what was with the sudden change?

Meanwhile, Killua was sporting a nasty grin. Are you confused yet, Sasuke Uchiha? Just because you are the "Last Uchiha" doesn't mean anything in the face of my student's rigorous training. I doubt Naruto can beat you yet but he will in time.Naruto succeeded in dodging a flurry of strikes from Sasuke. Naruto grinned and launched a fist towards Sasuke's face. He still naïve and swings too wide. Killua's eyes drifted over to Sasuke's trained form. You still have some kinks to work out in your own style though.

"Killua, you seem like you're having fun." Gon commented.

"Ah. It's been awhile since I've seen someone with a will like Naruto's. He reminds me of you."

"You think so? I don't know about that. I think he still has some issues to work out." Gon's face was contorted in thought.

"Gon, don't think too hard. You have steam coming out your ears."

"Ahh!" Gon exclaimed, completely ignoring Killua, "He has two chakra signatures. Why didn't I notice this before?" Killua frowned and activated Gyo. Indeed, there was a swirling red mass mixing with the boy's own insane chakra capacity.

"Gon, we absolutely need to look into that later. I feel it holds the key to something."

Gon nodded and focused back on the match. "Go Naruto!" Gon jumped up and down with excitement. "You can do it!"

Unaware of his teachers' observations, Naruto had prepared for the spar. I need to get serious, Naruto frowned, and that means I have to act professionally. That's what Killua said, and Gon backed him up so… His fingers came up in a reluctant sign of challenge. Sasuke's eyes widened a fraction before his own hand came up in a sign to accept the challenge.

"Begin!" The hand came down and the combatants launched themselves at each other. Naruto shifted to avoid the punch aimed to knock the air out of his lungs. He scooted backwards a few paces to put distance before launching a counterattack with a right hook. Sasuke blocked it with his left arm and sent a kick towards Naruto's face.

Both of them leapt backwards gasping for breath. What is with him? Sasuke thought, he wasn't this good a week ago! It had to be those students. I knew they weren't normal. They had to be training this loser!

"Stop spacing out Sasuke!" He ducked under Naruto's roundkick. Sasuke smirked and sent Naruto flying out of the ring with a well-placed kick to the back. The blonde coughed as Sasuke stood over him with a smirk.

"Idiot. You really thought I wasn't paying attention?" Naruto growled and dusted off his clothes. Sasuke won this match, but he would be him someday. The two stared for a moment before giving the traditional bow of respect.

"One day I will beat you."

"I'd like to see you try." Naruto glared and backed off. Gon was giving him a thumbs up when he arrived back at his place in the line. "I did terrible."

"You did just fine," Gone said trying to cheer him up, "It takes practice."

"Ah." Killua gave him a pat on the back. "We'll get you to the top. You can be sure of it!" Killua smirked. And I get to see that arrogant Uchiha get his butt handed to him. Killua wanted to fight the kid—teach him a lesson in overconfidence. He never could stand jerks.

If Sasuke wasn't careful, he would kill him.

…

In the hokage's tower, the hokage had been carefully monitoring Killua and Gon. He was starting to suspect that Kakashi had pawned them off on Iruka. Kakashi's motives for doing so were unclear, but it was most likely to keep them out of the field for as long as possible. It was obvious these two did not belong in the academy.

"Cat."

There was a flash of black and white revealing a young female ANBU. Hiruzen placed a stack of papers on the desk in front of him. He had started to get bad sensations lately, and there were several loose ends he had to tie up. One loose end called Itachi Uchiha. He needed correspondents loyal to him to continue spying for him in the worst case scenario. "Sir." Cat bowed her head and awaited orders.

"An undercover spy of ours is to receive this package. It will tell him what to do. However, you are not to see his face. He will be located on the border between River and Fire, so I want you to find an appropriate hiding spot. I will send him word of its location."

"Yes sir!" Cat was used the
hokage's unusual request. There were things that she was better off not probing into.

"Also," he cleared his throat, "I want to place two new boys underneath the care of ANBU. They have been masquerading as academy students, but their skill sets are too high for the academy. I want you to outfit them with bingo books and give them this mission…" he handed the sealed commission off to Cat. "Tell them they are to graduate from the academy by the end of this week."

"Sir!"

"Dismissed." Cat vanished in a swirl of leaves. Hiruzen laced his fingers together and leaned forward on his desk.

All the pieces were in place. This time, Itachi would have somebody who knew the whole story. He knew the boy had left clues that led to the truth hidden all over the nations, but he had yet to see a single person solve the puzzle. These hunters though, seemed accustomed to unusual twists and turns.

They would discover the truth long after he had passed.