Hello my faithful minions *cough* um, I mean, readers... hehehe ^^ I'm back with another wonderful chapter! And so soon too! Hooray for the author! Ok enough about me; let's get back to my story. It's longer than the others so far so hopefully you'll enjoy it! Please review! Thank you to everyone who had decided to follow the story and reviewed :D this is all for you guys XD

End Flashback, Present Day

"Today I will announce the names of the gennin groups and the jounin that will be leading your squad." Iruka's voice broke through the babble of the students in the class. Everyone was excited. Today they would become a part of a ninja squad and work for the village. Naruto sighed, he didn't really care about the groups, he had another reason to be here and that was all that mattered, otherwise he would never consider seeing this cesspit again. He sighed again. He was in a bad mood so his thoughts had taken a darker turn than usual. He had another nightmare last night about his life before leaving this village. If it wasn't for Kyuubi he probably would've destroyed his entire house before realising where he was. Usually kaa-san was there and calmed him down without even having to wake him. He hated it when Kyuubi had to force his way into his head to fight his memories, it always gave him a headache, another reason for his crappy mood. He sighed again.

"What's up with you?" a voice broke through his musings. Sasuke looked over at the usually peppy blonde boy, his face still that expressionless mask he seemed to wear when other people were around. The only clue that he was worried about Naruto was the gleam in his eye. At a closer look there was also a strong gleam of curiosity. Naruto smirked grimly, of course no one would care about what he was feeling, only curiosity to fill the boredom of waiting for the groups to be decided. A sigh escaped his lips which only made the gleam in Sasuke's eyes brighter.

"Just a headache, nothing to worry about," he said flippantly, and turned to pay attention to the groups. He missed the first couple but managed to catch the last few.

"Team 7: Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno and Naruto S-," a growl cut off Iruka before Naruto's last name could be heard. Iruka looked up to see Naruto and 'Fang' glaring at him in an obvious "keep your mouth SHUT' look. Sasuke observed this in interest. Now that he thought about it, he didn't know Naruto's last name or clan allegiance, and clearly Naruto didn't want it known.

'I wonder why?" he thought to himself as he watch Iruka clearly get the silent message. Well we are on the same team as him so it should be interesting to discover. His plans for uncovering Naruto's secrets however were stopped in their track like a steam train had hit him when a screechy voice pierced the air.

"YAY! Love wins above everything! See Ino-pig? Sasuke and I were meant to be together!" Sakura screamed out in joy, oblivious to the sudden tension in the room. Sasuke sweat dropped, he would have preferred the train...

"Ahem, anyway, Team 7 includes Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto, the jounin in charge of you shall be Kakashi Hatake." Iruka said getting everyone's attention again. Naruto froze. "Team 8 will include Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame and Hinata Hyuuga; your jounin shall be Kurenei Yuhi. Team 9 is still in active duty, so Team 10 will be comprised of Shikamaru Nara, Choji Akimichi and Ino Yamanaka; you jounin is Asuma Sarutobi." Naruto was barely paying attention, his mind was racing.

'Kakashi?' he thought. 'Why him? I don't know if I can handle being around him, especially after what he did to him in the past. I still have the scar from his attack. The lightning haunts my dreams. What do I do?' his mind was tearing itself apart as doubt raged through his mind.

Kyuubi had heard the name and growled inaudibly in recognition. He felt Naruto's body stiffen and he smelt the unbridled fear coming from his kit. He looked up and saw his eyes were wide and he had started to shake. Kyuubi whined trying to reassure the boy, but it went unheard as terror seized the child.

"Calm down kit!" He yelled in his mind, but it was no use, his fear had taken hold. Naruto's chakra had started to flare as memories played throughout his mind. He heard the birds, saw the lightning and felt the fist through his gut over and over again. Kyuubi didn't know what to do; he couldn't let Naruto lose himself here! People would die! He really didn't care about the class of students, if he had it his way, they would have burned in hell a long time ago, but if Naruto killed them all he would be sent away from the village and hunted down and then there would have been no reason to come here! All this pain and confusion would have been for nothing! He growled in frustration and did the only thing that came to his mind. Hit bit him, hard.

The flash of pain broke through his memories as the smell of blood hit his nostrils. He looked down to see Kyuubi looking up at him, worry and regret evident in his gaze as his sharp fangs pierced the flesh of his hand. A whimper came out, muffled by his hand. Naruto smiled sadly down at the fox.

'Thank-you Kyuubi, for stopping me..." he whispered in his mind. Kyuubi let go of his hand and licked the wound in regret, instantly healing it. Unknown to them, a pair of onyx eyes had witnessed all that had passed between them, from the second the name of their new mentor was uttered.

'What could have made him so scared? He was thinking. 'He faced Kenji without so much as a flicker of fear, yet there mere mention of a name made him freeze over in terror! This jounin may be useful in helping me achieve my goal,' Sasuke thought, content with the placing of his team, Sakura excluded. She would only slow him down; the others might actually be helpful.

The class waited in silence as each of the jounin came to collect their new students, until only team 7 were left. Naruto was distracting himself with Kyuubi when he felt a flare of chakra from the rooftop. He blood ran cold as he recognized the energy signature. The others had clearly not noticed it as Sasuke was too involved in his thoughts and Sakura too involved in trying to get his attention. Their new sensei obviously wanted them to sense his chakra and head to the rooftop, but he didn't want to see Kakashi that soon, it didn't hurt that his was ignoring Sakura from yesterday and he was just in a bad mood with Sasuke, so he just decided to ignore it and see what he would do. Hours passed as the three sat together, the silence only broken by Sakura's constant flirting and random outbursts of rage towards their late sensei. Kyuubi was started to get annoyed with her screechy voice and was bargaining with Naruto to see if he could bite her, just once, lightly, really, not that bad, just a scare, until footsteps could be heard outside the room. Naruto smirked, he had felt several pulses of chakra, each bigger and stronger than the last, trying to get their attention and get them to make their way to the roof. He obviously got tired of waiting and had come down to collect them.

As he slid open the door, Kyuubi jumped in front of Naruto shielding him from view with his tails fanned out behind him and let out a growl. Sasuke and Sakura stopped what they were doing and aimed their gazes at the man that now stood in the doorway. His silver hair spiked up away from his face and leaned slightly towards his left giving him a scarecrow look. His was wearing a standard jounin outfit complete with green flak jacket and blue pants. The only thing that differed from the norm was the mask that covered half his face and the hitai-ate that covered his left eye. He knew what lay behind that headband and was glad that it was covered. He watched from behind Kyuubi's tails as the jounin surveyed his new students. His face remained clear of any reaction to the group as he visually assessed Sakura and Sasuke. A small frown appeared when he couldn't see his third student that was hidden behind the mass of red fur that was growling at him. He turned towards the fox and shuddered at the hate filled gaze that was directed his way. If looks could kill he'd be pushing up daises and still feel the burn from that heated glare.

"My first impression of you is... your all idiots," he said in a calm, bored voice. Sakura squeaked in indignation and Sasuke frowned, not pleased at his assessment. He was an Uchiha! Not an idiot. Maybe he didn't know that, that's why he insulted them. He was about to make a comeback to this rude jounin, but Sakura beat him to it.

"Why are we the idiots? You're the one who was late! At least we can read the freaking time!" she screeched at him. Naruto winced. Maybe one day he would let Kyuubi bite her, just to shut her up. He felt a wave of satisfaction from the fox as he agreed with his decision. He decided to interrupt before Kakashi made them all look like imbeciles.

"It's because we didn't go to the roof right?" he asked innocently from behind Kyuubi's tails. Kyuubi grinned but didn't move. Kakashi looked surprised at the fan of tails before resuming his bored expression.

"And how did you know I wanted you at the roof?" he asked. He felt a little silly at talking to a fan of fur, but since his new student didn't seem to be moving, or the fox for that matter, he had no choice. Naruto smirked.

"Because of them chakra pulses you've been sending out every half hour. You wanted us to sense it and make our way up to the roof to meet you. When we didn't move you continued to send them out regularly and steadily make them stronger, trying to catch out attention. Then you finally got tired of waiting and came down here to meet us, assuming we are so dense that we couldn't sense your chakra." Naruto answered as if he was reading from a text book but still managed to hold that bored tone Kakashi seemed to employ. Kakashi frowned in annoyance.

"Then why didn't you come if you sensed my chakra?" he questioned.

"Cause you're the sensei. It's your duty to guide us and come to us. Not us to come to you. Not very good at this are you?" Kakashi could hear the smirk in his voice. The fox grinned, proud at the way the boy was handling himself. He could still feel the tremendous terror from the boy, but he was controlling it and turning it into anger against the scarecrow. Sasuke smirked at Naruto, glad he covered up for him missing the fact that he didn't sense the chakra and was now giving their new sensei the third degree. Sakura just stood there open mouthed in disbelief. He's their sensei! You couldn't talk to him like that!

"Show some respect freak! He's a jounin! Even if you beat Kenji, he could still kick your ass!" Sakura yelled at the fur that his Naruto. Naruto didn't need to answer as the fur that his him bristled and a low threatening growl was directed at her. She was effectively shut up, but still glared at the tails that hid her real target. Kakashi observed them with interest as they communicated.

'So this boy is the one that defeated Kenji? Hmmmm, interesting...' Instead he said, "Well since you don't feel like going up to the roof, we shall stay here instead. Why don't you tell me about yourselves? And after, we will answer questions and I will tell you about how we will conduct our missions and so forth." He went and sat down on Iruka's desk at the front of the class waiting for one of them to speak up.

"Wait, what do you mean tell you about ourselves? What do you want to know?" questioned Sakura, her voice a little less screechy as confusion covered the usual piercing sound.

"Whatever you want, your name, likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams for the future, anything you like."

'Well why don't you go first to give us an example?" asked Sakura, still confused as to what he wanted.

"Ok, fine. My name is Kakashi Hatake. I have many likes and dislikes. Hobbies? I don't think I want to tell you. Dreams for the future? Never really thought about. Okay, now it's your turn." He said in the same bored tone.

'Well that's helpful, he only really told us his name' thought Sakura. Unknown to her the other were thinking the same thing. "Ok, the pink one, you first." He directed toward Sakura.

"Hi! My name is Sakura Haruno. I like...I mean the person I like is..." she stopped as the blush crept up her cheeks and stopped the words in her mouth. She glanced quickly at Sasuke and giggled insanely. Naruto sweat dropped and Sasuke shivered with distaste. Sakura continued, but constantly stopped to giggle and blush. Naruto gagged in his head. "My hobby is... (Giggle) oh and my dreams for the future! Eeeek!" at this she couldn't go on as her head was filled with delusional fantasies. Kakashi sighed.

'Girls today are more interested in boys than they are in ninja training.' "Ok then, you next, tall, dark and brooding." He said pointing at Sasuke. Naruto and Kyuubi both snickered as Sakura screeched in protest.

"My name, is Sasuke Uchiha. I don't like many things and hate a lot of things. I don't have any hobbies. What I have is not a dream because I will make it a reality. My goal, is to kill a certain someone and restore my clan." He said in a dark tone. Sakura had stars in her eyes, Kakashi looked like he didn't expect anything less and Naruto was idly playing with the fur on one of Kyuubi's tails. This was nothing new to him. He even knew who he wanted to kill. It was kinda obvious, with the whole revenge of his clan thing he had going on.

"Alright then, now you, hiding behind the fox." Kakashi said to Naruto. 'The one with the smart mouth' he really thought.

"Well I don't really feel like telling you my full name, and you already know me, but people just call me Naruto. The fox's name is Fang. He is my friend, protector and family. I love my family which saved me. I hate those who hurt others and judge people without knowing them, which is the majority of people. I have many hobbies but I mostly spend my time training or hanging out with Fang. I don't really have a dream for the future but I have a principle that I live by. To protect all those who couldn't protect themselves, so tragedies like the ones I have witnessed and experienced never happen again." His voice was dead and cold as he spoke. It sent shivers down Sasuke's spine and effectively stopped Sakura's screeching. Kakashi's visible eye widened when he heard the name Naruto.

'It can't be him. But it's not that common of a name. And the fox... that just makes it more likely for it to be him...but I killed him! I remember my fist going through his stomach! It's been haunting my nightmares for the past ten years!' he thought desperately.
"Move the fox's tails kid!" Kakashi ordered, afraid of what he was about to find out. 'Fang' growled at the man but Naruto cut him off.

"It's ok Fang. I'm fine, you can move." Naruto's voice sounded out from behind his screen. He sounded confident but on the inside he was trembling. Sakura and Sasuke watched on in confusion, curiosity and fascination at the events that were unfolding before them. It appeared that Kakashi and Naruto knew each other from past events. Sasuke was almost shaking with anticipation. At last he could find out more about the blonde enigma that had charged into his life a few days ago. He didn't realise he was holding his breath until the need for oxygen screamed at him in his head and he let it out in a big whoosh. Beside him he heard Sakura do the same.

Kyuubi growled once more in warning before curling his tails around his body, revealing the boy behind him. Naruto was the picture of ease with his head propped up and resting against his palm. Only his eyes betrayed the fear and tension he was feeling, and the stiff posture of his back portrayed his alertness to an attack.

Kakashi hadn't moved a muscle since Kyuubi moved, he had gone into shock. Naruto smiled grimly at his reaction as he stared at the face that haunted the majority of his nightmares.

"What's wrong sensei? Blast from the past too much for you? Or is seeing my face making you remember unfinished business?" he said bitterly, tensing further in preparation for an oncoming attack. Kyuubi was growling continuously at his feet, reassuring Naruto of his support and warning Kakashi at the same time. Kakashi winced at his implication, he had been regretting using the chidori on the boy and, so he thought, killing him ever since that night. He had come back from a failed mission against the shinobi clan that had killed Obito and was pissed and everyone and everything and seeing the boy that was the cause of his sensei's downfall, unharmed, had just set him off. The rest of the village treated him as a hero, but the Third had punished him severely by suspending him, and even after he had returned to active duty he was placed on mere C rank missions. It was 3 years before he could return to doing the usual B, A and S rank missions he was used to and even then he had to take a gennin group every year to train. Luckily for him though, none of them had passed his test that was inspired by Obito and, unconsciously, Naruto.

"Naruto, I'm so-," he started but Naruto interrupted him.

"Just forget about it for now, sensei, and tell us about the test we have to go through now," Naruto said impatiently, dismissing Kakashi's apology with a wave of his hand. Kakashi looked at Naruto in surprise and confusion.

"How did you know that there was a second part to becoming a gennin?" he asked incredulously. Naruto just sighed before explain to his sensei and the other clueless gennin.

"If every student from the academy was made a gennin, then not only would the Leaf village have at least three times the amount of military strength but the quality of each shinobi would be greatly lower than it is now with not enough time to train each ninja seriously. Obviously there is some test we have to take with a hidden meaning that we must grasp to pass. My guess is that only about a third of us will be allowed to pass while the others are sent back to the academy, based on the numbers of the shinobi I have seen so far." Naruto summed up from his observations. Kakashi was dumbfounded that he could surmise all of that from just observed of the village. Sakura and Sasuke were just surprised that they had to go through more tests to become gennin.

"But what was the academy's exams for?" demanded Sakura. "All those tests and all that training! Why would we need to go through more?"

"The academy exams were there to select those who have the potential to become gennin, not to actually select gennin. It's as Naruto says, if we made every academy graduate a gennin, we would have many more shinobi, but the quality of each would be pathetic. There would be hardly any jounin or chuunin whilst there would be way too many gennin." Kakashi explained to the confused girl. Sasuke just frowned. This would just delay him towards his goal. He didn't need any more time wasting tests! He needed to get stronger NOW.

'Why can't these stupid people realise this?' he thought angrily.

"Ok, that's enough of an introduction. Tomorrow we shall meet at the third training ground at dawn for the test. Oh and I advise you not to eat any breakfast or you'll throw up,' he added. Judging by the way his mask crinkled, he was smiling. Naruto frowned at this warning and the clear amusement he got from telling it.

"Fine," was all Naruto said before standing up. Kyuubi leapt up as his master got to his feet. Naruto headed towards the door, Kyuubi staying between him and Kakashi, in case he tried anything. All eyes were on him as he paused at the door and turned back towards his nightly tormentor. "I would rather if you told no one about who I really am. I wouldn't want a repeat of what happened the last time I was here. Fang wouldn't take it well," he said before leaving the room. Sakura and Sasuke just stared at the empty space that he once stood in blankly, before turning their eyes towards their sensei. His eye held guilt, regret and sadness in it before wiping all emotion from his face and turning towards his 'students'.

"Ok then, tomorrow at dawn. See you then," he said to them before vanishing in a puff of smoke. Sasuke and Sakura turned and looked at each other in bewilderment.

"H-hey Sasuke, you wanna go and get something to eat together?"

Sasuke just ignored her and walked out the door. Tomorrow morning was going to be interesting.