A.N.: Another chapter here (finally). Thanks to all my readers and reviewers.

A.N.2: Now reposted with less grammar and spelling errors.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. That's it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Konoha Main Library~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Naruto's clone had spent almost all afternoon researching. The library was open to all ninja and it contained various kinds of information. What it didn't have were jutsu scrolls. They were kept in better guarded locations for security reasons and whoever wanted to study them had to have clearance of the same level as the technique in question. The librarians could bar anyone from entering those if he seemed suspicious to them. Needless to say, they usually found Naruto a plenty suspicious character, so he often had to bring Tenzo with him, if he wanted to see them.

So what did he visit the library for? It was the books about techniques he was studying. Those books included the names, rank and general descriptions of jutsu without giving any instructions on performing them. And these were what Naruto was interested in. He looked for anything named Wind Drill, Chakra Drill or just Drill. There was nothing. After some consideration he studied techniques named Piercing anything, but neither Inuzuka's Piercing Fang, Demonic Illusion: Piercing Darkness or Raiton: Piercing Lightning sometimes used by Kumo ninja sounded remotely helpful.

He sat back and closed the book in dismay. Either the technique Tenzo spoke about wasn't here, or it had such a strange name he would never guess it. But he wasn't one to give up. He closed his eyes and tried to imagine how his finished technique should look like. He imagined his hand enveloped in a whirlwind of extremely sharp blades. Then he opened his eyes and looked up anything with Whirlwind in its name. This search yielded a couple of taijutsu moves and a Fuuton jutsu he had heard of before, but it wasn't what he needed. He then looked up Whirlpool, Eddy, Tornado, Hurricane, Whirl, Whirling, Maelstrom, Storm, Spin, Spinning and Spiral. His main discovery was that circular motion wasn't popular among jutsu creators. There was hardly anything. He was almost ready to call it a day when he finally hit gold. One book spoke of something that finally sounded useful.

Rasengan

A-rank. N

Created by Yondaime Hokage. Uses concentrated ball of spinning chakra to drill through almost anything.

And that was all there was. Naruto's clone was sure he had found the technique Tenzo was talking about. But how to find out more about it? A-rank was high above his clearance. Tenzo, as a jounin, would be allowed to see it, but there was the letter N beside the rank. That meant the scroll was not available in the library. Probably because this might be one of those that were accessible only to a select few, like a clan or whoever the creator had deemed worthy. That is if the Yondaime didn't take it to his grave, which was also a possibility. He closed the book and looked for another mentions of the Rasengan. He was sure there must be something in the Life of the Yondaime, History of the Third Great Shinobi War or something like that. Maybe it would yield some more hints.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Konoha Ninja Academy~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The classroom was in its usual unruly state that occurred every time no teacher was present. It wasn't usual for Iruka-sensei to be late, but the whole class was taking advantage of his absence. In the front, Sakura, Ino, Ami, Fuki and Kasumi were fawning over Sasuke. The Last Uchiha was ignoring them with all his considerable might. Thanks to lots of practice he could now ignore fangirls with perfect professionalism. In the back Kiba was showing off his brand new puppy (I mean a ninja dog, never to be confused with a puppy, no matter that he's still young).

"This is Akamaru," he introduced the little white ball of fur to his friends.

"He's cute," Choji cooed. Akamaru barked. He was a big bad ninken of the big, bad Inuzuka clan. He didn't appreciate being called 'cute.'

"Hey, Shikamaru, what do you think?" The Nara genius didn't think anything. He was sleeping soundly. Kiba jabbed him with his elbow. The lazy boy opened one eye.

"Troublesome," he yawned. "What do you want now?"

"That's Akamaru," Kiba introduced his partner again.

"Troublesome. Hello," said Shikamaru and closed his eyes again. Akamaru barked happily. At least somebody was taking him seriously.

"Hey, Kiba," Choji said taking a bag of chips out of his bag. "Why do you call him 'Red'?"

"Why not?" The Inuzuka still had no idea either, but he would never admit it.

"Because he's white," the plump boy replied opening his bag of chips. Akamaru's nose twitched. Barbecue! He whined unhappily. Choji, seeing this, gave him a handful o chips, though it pained him greatly to sacrifice his favorite flavor. The puppy devoured them hastily.

"So what?" Kiba shrugged.

"Well, nothing." Choji ran out of arguments. He was never particularly good with them. He concentrated on eating his chips before Akamaru could stick his snout into the bag. The fluffy dog was trying valiantly.

Before anything else cloud happen, the door opened and Iruka walked in. He looked grim, but that might have something to do with their performance on the latest test. He was supposed to announce the results today.

The students quieted down, but not enough in their sensei's opinion.

"Silence," he commanded. Everybody stopped talking and returned to their seats, only Ino and Sakura had a brief shouting match over who would sit next to 'her Sasuke-kun.' Iruka stopped it by sending both of them to the other end of the classroom. Now the order was restored, he stood at the front of the classroom.

"Students, I have an important announcement to make today." His voice was grave and serious and many children wondered whether they really did so badly on the last test. "Shikamaru! Wake up!" he shouted. The lazy genius lifted his head from his arms and blinked owlishly. "Now everybody is awake, we can continue." Iruka's voice turned grave once more. "Some of you might have already heard of what happened during the last Chuunin Exams in Suna." Kiba paled. He knew what Iruka-sensei was going to say next. He had heard speculations before, but now it was going to become official.

"What's wrong, Kiba?" Choji asked.

"Weren't you there?" Shikamaru added.

"I was," he admitted. He didn't tell his classmates about what he had witnessed there. He didn't want to talk about it. He didn't want to even think about it. Remembering the feeling of the tainted power in the air made him shake every time. The only thing he described to his friends were the final matches.

"Quiet," Iruka chastised them. "This is really important so pay attention." They all straightened up, the perfect pictures of innocence. Iruka wasn't fooled, he knew them too well for that, but since they were all silent, he continued. "So because of the events that occurred there, we'll probably be soon at war with Iwa."

Now, there was it. There were startled and frightened gasps from all over the classroom. Even the usually stoic Sasuke blinked and Shino's bugs buzzed louder. Kiba only stared straight ahead. Shikamaru didn't miss it.

"You knew, didn't you?" Kiba nodded mutely.

"War?" "What?" "That's… that's…" "Troublesome," sounded from various parts of the classroom.

"Quiet down," Iruka ordered. They obeyed immediately. The Chuunin wished they could be so disciplined all the time and not only when faced with such a great danger. He let his eyes wander over them. They were only children. Frightened young children. He couldn't imagine them going to battle, not even his best students, but he knew they will have to. He had been too young to take part in the last war, but he had some idea what it was like. He didn't wish it on anyone.

"Because there is a war looming ahead, the Hokage decided to put the Academy on wartime regime." His words resounded ominously through the silent classroom.

"What does it mean?" Haruno Sakura. A clever girl, but too smitten with Uchiha Sasuke. He didn't give her high chances of survival.

"That means that the curriculum will be sped up and the graduation age lowered," he explained. "You were supposed to spend four years learning here, but in wartime it will be reduced to two. So that means by the end of the next school year you should be graduating."

"So soon?"

"Yes, Kouta, so soon," the chuunin confirmed. "To accomplish that, your taijutsu, ninjutsu, genjutsu and thrown weapon training would be intensified. The tactics, strategy and stealth classes would remain as they are. The history lessons are cut down and the kunoichi training is cancelled entirely."

"What?!" Every girl in class shouted in unison.

"Yes, Ino," he turned to the loudest one. "Such skills aren't important in wartime."

"But aren't we supposed to be able to pretend to be civilian women?" The petite blonde turned her wide blue eyes on him. It usually made people do whatever she wanted, but it would have little to no effect on an enemy.

"Such skill is meaningless on the battlefield, miss Yamanaka," he informed her. "Or do you intend to kill your opponent by your superior flower-arranging skills? Though I suppose you might be able to do so with your cooking." The prankster in him sometimes needed out. Nobody laughed.

"I bet it would be no problem for Sasuke-kun!" Sakura again. It was just a matter of time when somebody would say that.

"Yes, he'll do it, no problem," Ami agreed.

"He's a genius after all," Ino added. She must have been really distracted to react so late. Soon other members of the fanclub voiced their opinions, while Sasuke didn't give any outward sign he heard them at all. Were they really so shallow or were they striving for a sense of normalcy in the face of upcoming disaster? Iruka didn't know. He wasn't sure he wanted to.

"Quiet down!" he shouted using his Big Head no Jutsu. The class obeyed immediately. "The situation is grave so there is no time for your childish squabbles." He reached into a folder and withdrew a stack of papers. "These are your new schedules. They become effective starting today. Pass them along and I'll answer any questions you might have concerning them."

Sasuke studied his sheet with interest. More training. Good. More power for him. And a war promised a lot of opportunities to test himself against worthy opponents. He'll become strong in no time. And then… 'Watch out, Itachi, I'll be coming for you. Just don't get yourself killed before I can get you.'

Hinata studied her new curriculum with a sense o impeding doom. She was already weak and useless and it will become even more apparent with the new more intensive training. She couldn't imagine herself going to war. She was going to get killed in the first battle. She'd probably get even her teammates killed. She wondered whether anybody would miss her. She didn't think her father would be such a person. He already had Hanabi and though her younger sister was barely more than a toddler, everybody agreed she showed more promise than Hinata ever did. The Hyuuga heiress sighed. She wished she weren't such a pathetic failure. No matter how hard she tried, she could never become strong. No matter what she did, it was never enough. Maybe she wouldn't be able to graduate at all and will stay in Konoha, as a Branch House member. She shuddered. She really didn't want that. She will try her hardest to graduate. If only because death in battle didn't sound as bad as an activated Caged Bird Seal.

Shino considered the new timetable with outward indifference. Only the buzzing of his Kikaichu betrayed what he was really feeling. His clan prided themselves on their calm and logical approach to anything, but he was finding it impossible to do so now. Logic was telling him that he wasn't good enough to fight in the war. Most, if not all, his classmates weren't. Logic concluded that they would be dead soon after graduation. And even if the Aburame wasn't particularly close to any of them, he didn't want their deaths. He didn't want to die as well. He was scared and that wasn't becoming of a shinobi. He stared blankly ahead and tried to calm himself. He'll need his composure if he wanted to survive. And he wished he didn't have to be calm and logical and could run screaming.

'Troublesome,' was on the forefront of Shikamaru's mind. He had always wanted to be average, but it looked like it wasn't an option anymore. Average shinobi had the average life expectancy on battlefield uncomfortably low. He was too lazy to look up a statistic, but he sure wanted to live longer than that. That meant he'd have to train and become good enough to survive. But not too good or he'll get sent to the worst battles. He'd have to make sure nobody had any idea how good he really was. Troublesome.

Choji was munching on his chips faster than ever. It was his nervous habit and he had a lot of reasons for anxiety now. He was sure his friend Shikamaru would be alright, he was smart and all, but what about him? He was strong, but that was about it. He even couldn't use the Multisize technique yet. If he had to go and fight now…

"That sucks for you," Shinta whispered into his ear. "You're too slow to dodge anything." Choji scowled. He disliked Shinta. The boy was picking on him all the time, making fun of his pleasantly plump body. But he didn't really hate him. He was even a bit thankful to him. His taunts were part of the reason Shikamaru became his friend.

"Leave him alone," Kiba growled.

"Shouldn't you be worried about yourself?" Shikamaru added.

"Why do you defend him?" Tobio, Shinta's friend, asked. "He'll only drag everybody down."

"Though you really can't be dragged any lower," Shinta added.

"You two are too troublesome to bother answering," the Nara decided turning back. "Don't mind them, Choji. They aren't worth getting worked up over."

"I only hope we won't end up on the same team with either of you," Shinta scoffed.

"Likewise," Shikamaru muttered before falling asleep.

Sakura was scared. She was the smartest girl in the class and she knew it, but her taijutsu wasn't anything special and she knew it as well. And being as smart as she was, she could make a fair guess about her chances of survival. What she came up with wasn't pretty. She desperately needed some comfort, but she had no friends in the class. She had broken up with Ino over their developing rivalry over Sasuke. She looked at her former friend turned rival desperately, searching her face for any sign they might become friends again.

Ino felt unsure of herself. She was one of the better kunoichi in class, but she had also heard loads of war stories form her father and his teammates, whenever they came to visit. She was confident of her ability to hit anything with a shuriken, but that wasn't enough. She barely started learning her clan's secret techniques and she could tell it would be a long time before she became proficient with them. She felt herself rapidly falling into depression and that just wouldn't do. She needed a confidence boost now and she spotted the perfect target.

"Hey, Billboard Brow!" She shouted. "Aren't you afraid your humongous forehead makes a perfect target?"

"No-one can miss that," Ami added. She had resumed her old habit of bullying Sakura as soon as the Yamanaka heiress had stopped protecting her. Her lackeys Fuki and Kasumi nodded in agreement and sneered viciously.

Sakura was crestfallen. So Ino didn't want to rekindle their old friendship. 'Show her up!' Inner Sakura shouted.

"And what about you, Ino-pig?" she retorted looking perfectly self-confident, despite feeling the complete opposite. "You should be careful or somebody would mistake you for an actual pig and eat you for dinner!"

"Watch it, Forehead-girl!" Ino snarled.

"Quiet!" Iruka halted their fight. "I said you might ask me questions, not argue among yourselves. In case you've forgotten, you are all on the same side here. All of you are shinobi of Konohagakure. You are expected to be comrades, to watch each others' backs. Fighting among yourselves won't be tolerated. Understood?" Only silence responded. "Good. So now, if nobody has a question, we'll study the theory of multi-layered traps."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Konoha T&I headquarters~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Morino Ibiki rubbed his temples tiredly. He had recently ascended to the position of the head of his unit and was already marveling at how his predecessor had been able to deal with the workload. It was true that such cases didn't happen every day. If they did, the scarred tokubetsu jounin would hand in his resignation on the spot.

This was the problem at hand: Discover, who had leaked the contents of the Tsuchikage's letter to the general populace. It had seemed easy at first, but was slowly proving itself more and more complicated. They had already interrogated all the staff that had access to the Hokage's trash bin and they determined that neither of them had taken the letter out. Not that they trusted them so, but a thorough search of said bin revealed that the letter was still there. And if it was still there, how did it get into the hands of so many people?

The only logical answer was that there were two copies of the accursed demand. And if there were indeed two, where did the other one come from? The experts were already working on them and as far as they could tell, both the papers were really from Iwa, written by the Tsuchikage and stamped with his official seal. It indicated that he meant for the missive to come out to general public, which, Ibiki had to admit, was a clever move. But the question of how the other letter got to the important people remained unanswered.

The only way to resolve it was to ask the Councilmen and Clan Heads who had shown them the thrice-accursed piece of paper. It was something Ibiki really didn't want to do, but had no choice about. He dearly wished he could delegate it to his subordinates, but all the self-important politicians would refuse to speak with mere underlings. To make them talk, the boss had to come himself. The chief interrogator wished he could take his former boss and mentor to help, but Inoichi wasn't officially part of the squad anymore and he didn't have the necessary clearance. The Yamanaka could only offer him his moral support and condolences now. Ibiki sighed. It wasn't an experience he wanted to repeat ever again. He took a sip of tea and went over his notes on who told him what.

On first glance, his current findings didn't look too encouraging. Every single esteemed councilmember claimed he was informed about it by another esteemed councilmember. So far everything seemed perfectly legal. It only meant that somebody was lying, refusing to tell on his real source of information. Even his extensive knowledge of human minds couldn't discern who it was. The tokubetsu jounin wished he could just drag them in for more serious interrogation, but they were influential people and unfortunately being an arrogant ass wasn't a punishable offense. He had to make do with another means. He wrote down all the names of the Councilors and started drawing arrows between them, trying to track the progression of the letter among the populace.

Due to the sheer number of names involved the result looked chaotic, but Ibiki's trained mind traced the arrows without any difficulty. It should have been easy to find the person no arrow pointed to, but the problem was there wasn't any. Instead all the arrows originated from a circle of five people, who insisted they got the message from each other. At least one of them was most certainly lying. It didn't say which, but at least it narrowed the search down considerably.

Ibiki wasn't surprised at all when one of the suspects turned out to be Satoru, but he didn't think he was the culprit. The man wasn't cunning enough for something like this, unless he was the best actor he had ever encountered. No, the guilty party was only using him as a scapegoat, hiding in the shadows all the time. There was nothing to implicate them, but at least he had now an idea where to look for them. It would take weeks or maybe months of careful surveillance, but he would determine who had received the message from the Tsuchikage. He would find out who was secretly in the employ of Iwa. Because if there was one thing Ibiki really hated, it was traitors.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Training grounds~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Naruto was training again. With the war looming on the horizon (or more likely much closer), it was important for him to get as good as he could in as little time as he could. He had read an unbelievable load of books looking for mentions of the Rasengan and was now fairly sure he knew as much as he could know about it without actually knowing how to perform it. He came to conclusion that it wasn't quite what he had in mind for his new technique. Sure it was powerful, but it didn't work the way he wanted his new jutsu to work.

For one thing it didn't use elemental recomposition, at least from what he gathered. He wanted a Wind technique. It was also very chakra intensive, which wasn't that much of a problem for Naruto, but he still wanted something he could use repeatedly. It also was held in the palm of the hand. He wanted something that would envelope his whole hand and maybe even forearm. The ability to drill through anything sounded cool, but it was a bit of an overkill. He didn't need to shred his opponent's arm to molecules, he only needed to inflict damage serious enough to make sure they wouldn't be using the appendage again. The high concentration of chakra was something he filed for later consideration.

So he found himself on the training grounds again. Making Wind Blades presented no problem for him anymore, but he couldn't get them to spin properly. They tended to disintegrate whenever he attempted to do so. He ran a hand through his hair in frustration. What was he doing wrong? Not enough chakra control? For him, it was the most likely reason. But what could help? He had already mastered everything Tenzo taught him. There was always the possibility of looking something up in the library, but Naruto never liked that and he had already spent an unholy amount of time there recently. That left only making something up. But what would help him with the circular motion? Well, moving something in a circle, obviously. But what? The Leaf-floating exercise was asking for it. What else? Maybe the Water-walking. He could stick his hand into the pond and make the water flow in circles around it. That sounded good. He divided his clones into two groups and set them on the task.

"Training again?" a familiar voice asked.

"As you can see, Hotaru," the blond answered.

"So what are you working on?" the purple-haired girl asked. "And do I even want to know?" The girl had changed her attire since she made chuunin. She originally didn't want to wear the flak jacket, claiming it wasn't fashionable, but Yuugao quickly convinced her that in battle there's no place for fashion and the armored vest may someday save her life. So the younger Uzuki relented and started wearing the green garment dutifully. She only changed her purple skirt for a black one, because black goes with everything. That didn't prevent her from occasionally complaining that the vest clashed with her hair.

"Developing a new technique," Naruto answered. "It is going to be awesome," he boasted. "That's it," he added in a subdued tone, "if I can complete it."

"Why so down?" Hotaru asked. "This isn't like you."

"It's nothing," the boy replied, but the kunoichi could tell he wasn't sincere.

"You know, Naruto, I think you should practice your lying as well," she commented. "This was a lousy one."

"You're right," he sighed.

"So what's the problem?" she prodded when the jinchuuriki offered no further explanation. "Or is it secret?"

"No," he shook his head, "but I don't want to talk about it. Now, was there a reason you came?"

"Oh, yes!" She slapped her forehead. "I almost forgot! There are briefings on wartime procedures for every chuunin who never were at war before. We are required to come."

"When?"

"Now."

"Why didn't you say so earlier?" He jumped to his feet. "You continue your training," he commanded his clones and ran out of the training grounds. Hotaru followed him.

They slowed down when they reached the residential area. The young kunoichi noticed her teammate's shoulders sagging, his head drooping, his eyes fixed on the ground. 'Something is seriously wrong,' she thought. It didn't take her long to discern what. All around them were people glaring, pointing at him, whispering hateful words. It was almost like before the crowd had tried to lynch him.

"So this is what has you so down?" she whispered. He nodded mutely. "Don't let them get to you, they're stupid." Naruto didn't answer. Hotaru frowned. "Don't tell me you actually believe them." The only response was his shoulders sagging further. "Don't be stupid. That would be sinking to their level." The corner of Naruto's mouth twitched in a humorless smile.

"Don't you suggest we're beneath the demon, slut!" a civilian woman shouted. Hotaru glared at her.

"Leave it alone," Naruto said.

"I can't," she answered. "If you won't defend yourself than I would."

"Don't get into trouble for me. I can handle it."

"Yeah! Don't side with the demon!" This time it was a child who spoke. Hotaru looked at him in surprise. Naruto only smirked.

"You see, somebody talked."

"Isn't that forbidden?" the purple-haired kunoichi frowned.

"It is," the blond confirmed, "but do you want to execute half of Konoha?"

"That bad?" her eyes widened.

"Yes," he nodded. "And come now. We have a briefing to attend."

That's the end for now.

Next time: War begins. (at last).

And because this chapter was a bit shorter, here comes a little bonus.

A comprehensive guide to Suna clans (my creations)

Kineko clan: The proud clan of panther-users from the Village Hidden in the Sand. They breed their giant cats and use them in battle similarly to the Inuzuka clan, their old rivals. Those two clans regularly accuse each other of stealing/copying their techniques. They are fierce in battle and good trackers. They assimilated a lot of their companions' feline nature. They can be distinguished by black fang-like markings on their cheeks resembling the Inuzukas.

Family techniques: Beast/man imitation, Sphinx, Great Sphinx

Known members: Kineko Akira

Shinkudai clan: A clan of melee battle specialists. They are tall and well-muscled, their family trait is great strength. They use it to wield huge weapons in combat. Their distinguishing mark is samurai-style armor in rust color.

No family techniques are known at this point.

Known members: Shinkudai Toshiro

Aoyume clan: This is a small clan from the Hidden Sand. They have a Kekkei Genkai allowing them to manipulate other people's emotions using their voice. This gift is usually weak and used to supplement genjutsu most of Aoyume clansmen specialize in. Aoyume Daiki has the strongest ability in generations and is the hope of his clan.

Family techniques are revolving around genjutsu.

Known members: Aoyume Daiki

Museitabi clan: A clan of poison users. They breed scorpions to gain stronger poisons. They cannot command those animals in battle. Most of them learn puppetry to utilize the poison, some women become seduction specialists. Clan member Teono carries the scorpions in the wide sleeves of her kimono and uses them like puppets. Women of this clan tend to be weird.

Family techniques are about puppetry and poison.

Known members: Museitabi Teono, Museitabi Asami