"Oh crap I'm late" Naruto shouted as he saw his alarm clock. Moving quickly he gathered his new clothes and put them on, for some reason he had out grown his other clothes "must have had a growth spurt" was his thoughts when he went shopping. By now Naruto was five foot eight and had gained some muscle while losing most of his body fat. Once he was dressed Naruto quickly grabbed his sword and rushed out of his apartment he needed to get to the academy soon or he would miss team assignments.

Sprinting madly, dodging through the crowds, jumping over buildings and doing his best to increase his speed Naruto eventually got to the academy, a minute before he was supposed to.

"Naruto what are you doing here?" Shikamaru asked lazily before his eyes fluttered to Naruto's forehead protector, then the sword over the blonde's shoulder.

"I got promoted as well" Naruto grinned "and all I had to do was learn a simple seal."

Shikamaru yawned and went back to sleep, the blonde was too troublesome for him to think about right now.

"Yeah right" Kiba mocked "you probably just stole that forehead protector and convinced yourself you passed."

Naruto hefted his sword off his shoulder and using one hand, something he could do now if barely, he pointed it at Kiba "you want to fight mutt?" he growled.

"Bring it dead-last" Kiba smirked. "A fancy sword like that isn't going to save you from an ass kicking."

"says the mutt who needs a puppy to fight his battles for him" Naruto growled preparing to attack.

"NARUTO PUT YOUR SWORD AWAY NOW" came the loud voice of Iruka "AND KIBA SIT DOWN OR I'LL GIVE YOU BOTH DETENTION, GENIN OR NOT"

"Hai sensei" the two boy's said instantly sitting down, Naruto placing his sword carefully against his desk.

If Naruto had been more aware he would have noticed everyone staring at him in wonder or confusion. Where did he get the sword? How did he change so much? Why wasn't he wearing that orange monstrosity he called a vest? How exactly did he become a genin? This was the thoughts running through everyone's minds.

Iruka smiled as he looked at all of the assembled genin "first of all I would like to say that while I will miss all of you I am happy to see you all graduate" he announced "maybe finally I can have a silent class, one where the girls don't fight over a boy, a student doesn't sleep all day and I don't get pranked every five minutes" while his words were a little harsh the smile Iruka gave them all made it clear he was joking. "now I will give you all your team assignments but I want to make it clear even though I am no longer your sensei you can come and see me if you ever need anything" Iruka said getting a small nod from everyone.

"Team Seven, Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura" "Hah take that Ino" Sakura yelled interrupting Iruka. "And Uzumaki Naruto" Iruka continued ignoring Sakura's outburst, "your jonin instructor will be Hatake Kakashi." Iruka continued with his list and eventually the teams were all called out. "Your jonin instructors will be with you shortly just wait here" Iruka ordered before leaving to go prepare his class schedule for next term.

Noise picked up instantly "oh god I can't believe I'm not in a team with Sasuke" Ino whined.

"Told you true love would succeed Ino-pig" Sakura crowed.

"It's great that we are on the same team isn't it Shika?" Chouji asked while munching on some chips.

Shikamaru let out a soft snore as he had slept through all of it.

"Awww man I'm with bug boy and Hinata" Kiba moaned "why couldn't I have been on a team with a babe instead?"

"I believe working with competent team mates is more important than their looks Kiba" Shino said simply.

"Let's all work together" Hinata whispered softly pushing her fingers together nervously.

"This is so booorrrriiinnnng" Naruto complained loudly drawing all eyes to him.

"Hey Naruto that reminds me what's with the sword?" Ino asked.

"Heh I doubt the dead-last can even use it" Kiba smirked.

Naruto ignored Kiba and held up the sword "isn't it awesome?" he asked excitedly, maybe now people would respect him.

"It's obviously fake" Sakura said derisively "no way you could carry something that big."

"It's real" Naruto exclaimed "I've even been training with it, I'm a real bad-ass now."

"Heh sure you are" Kiba laughed "and I'm the Hokage."

"You want to go mutt?" Naruto growled as he stood up sending his desk flying.

"Bring it dead-last" Kiba sneered.

Angrily the two jumped forward to attack each other when a pair of hands grabbed the two. The owner of the hands was a beautiful woman with black hair and crimson eyes "now now what's going on here?' she asked dangerously.

"It seems they were about to have an unauthorized spar" a man who was currently smoking said with a lazy smirk.

The woman dropped the two boys and gave Naruto a cold glare before she turned to Kiba "my name is Yuhi Kurenai I am your jonin instructor follow me" she ordered before marching out of the room.

"Team ten follow me" the man said before he too walked out of the class room. Almost instantly all that was left was Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke.

"Hey where's our sensei?" Naruto asked confused, even going so far as to look outside the door fr him.

"Maybe he's running late" Sakura replied "now shut up baka you're annoying my precious Sasuke."

"Everything annoys Sasuke" Naruto pointed out. "He gets annoyed when people don't greet him as honourable Uchiha-sama."

"Well maybe they should" Sakura replied "my Sasuke deserves to be given complete respect after all."

Naruto rolled his eyes "you got anything you wish to say teme?" he asked.

"Hn" was Sasuke's elegant and descriptive response.

"He seems to think that teme is much better" Naruto grinned.

Growling in anger Sakura punched Naruto in the face "don't call him that you baka" she shouted.

Naruto blinked in surprise, Sakura's punch didn't hurt as much as usual, maybe she was finally warming up to him he thought to himself. "Sakura want to go out with me?" he asked only to receive a punch to the head "maybe not."

Eventually the three settled into silence, well Naruto and Sasuke were silent. Sakura spent all of her time talking to Sasuke about everything she could think off. After a while Naruto's boredom got the best of him and he decided that since he had nothing better to do he would do some exercise. Calmly he got onto the ground, his sword on his back, and he started to do push ups. After every twentieth push up he increased the weight of his sword making it heavier and heavier thus making the push ups harder. When his sword reached double it's normal weight at push up six hundred and twenty he lowered it's weight back to normal and started on one handed push ups following the same rules as before.

"What are you doing dobe?" Sasuke asked Naruto after an hour.

Having just finished his push ups Naruto jumped up and practised a basic swing with his sword, his aim was to do five hundred "Just figured I'd do something to pass the time teme" Naruto replied.

"I don't know why you even bother with a sword, a dobe like you will never be able to use it in battle" the Uchiha mocked.

"Yeah Naruto stop trying to act cool with that fake sword of yours" Sakura said loudly.

"Tenten and that jerk Neji are better than this" Naruto thought to himself. "it's not fake it's a real sword" he said aloud.

"Prove it" Sasuke challenged.

Naruto shrugged, if the teme wanted to be embarrassed it wasn't his problem "here" he said holding the hilt of the sword out "I bet you can't even hold it."

Eyes narrowed at the insult Sasuke reached out and snatched the sword from Naruto's grasp. Before the Uchiha could make a cutting barb to the blonde he dropped the sword, it was just too heavy for him. Sakura looked on in shock, Naruto had a large grin and when Sasuke finally realised what had happened hatred rolled off of him. How dare the dobe be stronger than he was, there was no way, Sasuke must have just had a bad grip. Bending down Sasuke wrapped both hands around the sword hilt and yanked, it moved an inch before falling back to the floor.

Giving an obviously fake yawn Naruto reached down and picked the sword up with one hand "are you done now?" he asked with a smirk "because I need to get back to my workout."

Sasuke just made a non-committal grunt and taking that as a yes Naruto got back to his work out.

After another hour of waiting their jonin instructor walked into the room. The jonin was tall and lanky, had a mask covering most of his face, had only one visible eye and he had a mess of silver hair. "So it appears that you are my team" he said lazily "I am Hatake Kakashi your jonin instructor meet me on the roof" having said that Kakashi disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

Doing as he was told Naruto stopped his exercise and placed his sword on his back "took him long enough to show up" he muttered before walking out the door, Sakura and Sasuke followed.

Once they were on the roof the three genin saw Kakashi lazing around on a bench reading an orange book. "Now that you are here" Kakashi said not even looking at them "go around introduce yourselves, do stuff like your likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams etcetera."

"Perhaps you could go first so we know what to do Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked sweetly.

"You do realise I just told you exactly what to do don't you?" Kakashi asked "whatever tall, dark and broody you're up."

Sasuke gave him a glare but did as he was ordered "my name is Uchiha Sasuke" he said self importantly "I don't have any likes, I dislike fan-girls and idiots, my hobby is training and my dream...no my ambition is to kill a certain someone."

"Wow depressing" Kakashi yawned "okay pinkette your turn."

"My name is Uchi...Haruno Sakura" Sakura said trying, and failing to cover her slip "I like..." here she squealed, "my hobbies are..." here she squealed again "and my dream is," for the third time she squealed and as with each times she did it while staring intently at Sasuke.

"Okaaay you're a crazy stalker nice to know, got any dislikes?" Kakashi asked still reading through his book.

"Ino-Pig and Naruto-baka" Sakura said instantly.

"Okay and now you the blondie who is obviously overcompensating, your turn."

Naruto glared at Kakashi for the overcompensating remark, he didn't know what it meant but it was obviously an insult. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto, I like Ramen and my bad ass sword, I dislike teme and green spandex, my dream is to be Hokage and as for hobbies I like to train with Gai-sensei, spar with Tenten (AN: read get his ass kicked by Tenten) and eat ramen."

Kakashi almost dropped his book when he heard a certain name, it was only years of training his reflexes that allowed him to hold onto it. "Ok, you are overcompensating and masochistic, at least you don't shout out about youth" he muttered.

Kakashi sighed before putting his book away and lazily eyeing his team "well you three are a pathetic lot, only two of you focus on training for broody it's so he can get revenge and blondie it's with a ridiculous weapon no ninja should use" here the two boys in question glared at the jonin. "None of you have suitable, relaxing hobbies that any well adjusted person should have."

"What do you mean sensei what's wrong with our hobbies?" Sakura asked confused.

Kakashi sighed "well pinky your hobby is to stalk your team-mate which is highly illegal I might add, broody over there only trains and blondie trains and spars sorry but eating ramen is not a hobby. Didn't any of you listen when the academy told you to take up a nice calming hobby, one that has nothing to do with being a ninja?"

"why does it have to have nothing to do with being a ninja?" Naruto asked not having paid attention to that lesson, or even have been there.

"Because the job of a ninja can be stressful sometimes you need an escape from it or you will go crazy that is why it is advised that people get other hobbies. You have met Gai right?" Kakashi asked patiently. Naruto nodded his head. "would you consider Gai a sane individual?" Naruto shook his head. "That is because his entire life revolves around being a ninja and training his taijutsu skills, the closest thing he has to a hobby is challenging me to competitions" Kakashi explained.

Naruto paled "so if I don't get a proper hobby I could end up like..." the thought was too horrible he just couldn't finish it.

Kakashi nodded grimly. "Unfortunately, however that will have to wait for later I have a few things I need to inform you all about. The first thing is that you aren't genin yet."
"What do you mean I'm not a genin?" Sasuke growled.

"Yeah sensei I thought we already graduated" Sakura said with confusion.

Kakashi frowned "how do I explain this?" he mused. "okay here goes you three have graduated but you are not genin until you have a team. Now I know you have been made part of my team but every sensei has a small test that they give to their genin. If the genin show traits that the sensei wants then they become a team if they don't then the sensei will refuse to teach them and the genin will be put on a back up roster until a sensei is willing to teach them" Kakashi tried to explain.

"Why wouldn't you want to teach me? I'm the last Uchiha" Sasuke said arrogantly.

"Maybe because you are a stuck up, arrogant, revenge obsessed young child" Kakashi mused aloud.

"Hah take that teme" Naruto grinned.

Kakashi sighed at Naruto's response, the team was dysfunctional at best. Not one of them could be considered sane, Sasuke hated the other two, Sakura obsessed over Sasuke and hated Naruto while Naruto hated Sasuke. The team was pretty pathetic and Kakashi had no doubt that they would fail his test. "Well that is all for today. I want you three to meet me at six am tomorrow morning at training ground forty two" Kakashi announced before disappearing in a swirl of leaves.

"You two better stay out of my way tomorrow" Sasuke ordered before he left.

"Yeah Naruto you better stay out of our way" Sakura shouted before she hurried to catch up to the object of her affections.

Naruto ignored them, normally he would try and start a fight after the teme was so rude to him but Naruto had something else on his mind, something he needed to do, something that was almost as important as ramen. Uzumaki Naruto needed to get a hobby and fast.

…

Naruto's first stop was Ichiraku Ramen maybe they could help him. "I need a hobby" he said desperately as he ran into the stall.

"Have you tried reading?" Ayame asked only to see Naruto was gone.

"Okay Ayame wasn't any help suggesting reading of all things" he muttered. "Tenten won't be any help she is waaayy to into her weapons, maybe the old man?" he asked himself before running off to the Intelligence Division Headquarters.

"Hey where's the old man?" Naruto asked the secretary as he barged right in.

The secretary sighed "down the hall, fourth door on the right leads to some stairs go up two flights then take the second door on your left, first on your left, down six flights and it should be straight ahead."

Following her instructions Naruto ran off and soon he was barrelling into what was a mad scientists dream. The room was covered in seals, dead body parts, random crystals, skeletons from things that shouldn't exist, blood, burn marks, it had a bottomless hole and right in the middle of the room Vaurien was taking a nap.

"Hey old man I need your help" Naruto yelled as he ran over and shook the man awake.

What happened next was Naruto was grabbed by the back of the collar and held over the bottomless pit. When he looked he noticed that several Chakra strings were holding him there. "what do ya want brat?" Vaurien asked glaring at Naruto.

"I need to find a hobby" Naruto said ignoring the fact that his life was in danger, ending up like Gai was worse.

"So ya came to ma lab and woke me up for that?" Vaurien asked slowly.

"Yup" Naruto grinned "you gotta help me."

Vaurien sighed as the chakra strings gently placed Naruto on the ground. "do ya see this brat?" he asked waving his hands around. "This is ma office, ma lab and ma life. Haven't been to ma home in over a decade. Ya want to know ma hobby? It's experimenting and trying to break all the known rules of chakra. Tell me brat why would ya come to me for something that I know nothing about?"

"Awww come on old man I'm desperate" Naruto begged.

"Why the 'ell do ya need a hobby anyway ya brat?"

"We met out sensei today and he told us if we didn't have a suitable hobby then we could end up like Gai-sensei" Naruto explained.

Vaurien nodded "I can understand why that would scare ya brat but Kakashi was just yanking ya chain, at ya age and level very few of ya have relaxing hobbies and most end up just fine."

"So I'm not gonna turn into Gai-sensei?" Naruto asked hopefully before he realised something. "How did you know that Kakashi was my sensei?"

Vaurien gave a small smirk "brat I'm the head of intelligence there is very little I don't know about this village. The Hokage is lenient but even 'e wouldn't let me experiment for a living."

Naruto looked at Vaurien in awe "so you know everything?" he asked an idea in his head.

"What do ya want to know brat?" Vaurien asked seeing the look on Naruto's face.

"What can you tell me about his test tomorrow?" Naruto asked quickly.

"And what about payment for this information?" Vaurien asked.

Naruto gave a dejected sigh "fine w hat do you want?"

"If ya pass the test then ya have to come and work for me one day a week while ya are in the village" Vaurien said with an evil smirk.

Naruto was sure it was just in his head but for a second he could swear that Vaurien had horns, a tail and was covered in flames. "Deal" he muttered.

Vaurien grinned "good good, now as to Kakashi's test 'e tends to have two different tests 'e uses. One 'e does if 'e likes ya then the other one is if he wants ya to fail. Both tests 'owever rely on teamwork. In the first test all ya have to do is work together as a team, 'e will do 'is best to try and turn ya against each other but it is all lies on 'is part. The second test is 'arder 'e will give ya an impossible mission that ya and ya team can't win. The purpose of this test is simple ya must pass the mission."

"But you said it was impossible" Naruto muttered with a frown.

"That's why ya cheat" Vaurien said simply.

"What do I do?" Naruto asked hopefully.

Vaurien smirked "first let me tell ya about the tests...

…

At six am Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura were waiting at training ground forty two. Unlike the other training grounds in Konoha which consisted of forests, meadows, clearings or even a few mock towns training ground forty two was a large and empty building made to represent a clan household. It was huge, it was trapped to the nines, there were more secret passageways than non secret ones. Training ground forty two, also known simply as 'the mansion' was made with the idea of helping Chunin practice and refine the skills needed for infiltration and assassination. This is where Kakashi and the Team Seven hopefuls were going to sit their test today.

A little after seven thirty Kakashi arrived "yo" he said lazily giving them a wave.

"YOU'RE LATE" Sakura screamed, Naruto gave a small smirk and Sasuke just glared.

"Well you see I thought to myself do I really want to get out of bed early just for you brats or do I want to sleep in a bit" Kakashi said rhetorically. Sakura and Sasuke gaped, this was their jonin instructor?

"Can we get started sensei?" Naruto asked hopefully "what do we have to do? Does it have something to do with that big ass building?" he asked gesturing to the building behind him.

Kakashi narrowed his eye, Naruto was up to something and he knew it. Sighing he decided to tell them about the test "the test here is simple" he started "inside the mansion there are six offices, inside each office is a desk with a simple message scroll inside you are to bring me the six messages, you can do it individually or as a team but I need the messages. You have one hour and beware I have set up traps and guards. Begin" Kakashi ordered causing the three genin to rush towards the mansion.

Naruto smirked as he ran towards the mansion, Sasuke and Sakura each running down one side of it while Naruto took a different path.

Lightening the weight in his sword so it wouldn't weigh him down Naruto jumped. He didn't jump high enough to reach the roof, nor was he strong enough to even attempt that but he was strong enough to reach the second floor window. Grabbing onto the window frame Naruto held himself there for a second while he thought "should I be stealthy or be awesome?" he asked himself "I'll be stealthy awesome instead" he decided beforehe carefully opened the window and sneaked inside.

The room he found himself in was a large library that was easily bigger than his apartment. The roof of the room was almost ten metres high and the bookcases reached all the way to the top. The bookcases were set up in a way that created a large maze, this with the hidden traps could cause some serious problems for most intruders. Naruto however wasn't worried calmly and almost casually he walked into the maze of books, his ears pricked for any sounds of the guards.

The first guard Naruto came up against was a clone of Kakashi. The clone had his back to Naruto and was reading an orange book like it's original tended to do. Smirking to himself Naruto slowly and carefully drew his sword before slashing at the Kakashi clone only to miss.

"Well aren't you slow?" the clone asked lazily, not even bothering to look at Naruto. Naruto just ignored the clone and attacked it again and again, missing every time. Yawning the clone ducked under another slash "is this the best you've got? You can't even touch me" it said trying to provoke the blonde ninja.

"I'll beat you just you wait" Naruto growled furiously attacking the clone over and over and over again. After three minutes of just evading the attacks the clone got bored and with a simple kick it got Naruto in the stomach causing him to double over in pain, a second later it hit him in the temple knocking him out.

…

When Naruto opened his eyes he found himself sitting outside the mansion, he was tied up with Sasuke and Sakura beside him also tied up, Kakashi was standing in front of them and all three were covered in water.

"Well there's a minute left and yet I have none of the messages anything to say?" Kakashi asked with a smirk.

Sakura looked down in despair, upset that she had failed.

Sasuke looked angry, he refused to admit he had failed the test even if a jonin was the enemy.

Naruto grinned before opening his mouth "The truth is what I want. Do you?" he said causing Kakashi to stare at him intently while the other two looked at him as if he had lost his mind. "Real deal, it's like an exchange. One more time, the leaves are all in the way. Isn't real is it? Yours is the biggest I've ever. With me! That's impossible, that's just. But, Iko's moans were" Naruto finished.

"Heh the dobe's finally lost his mind" Sasuke smirked.

Naruto ignored him and stared at Kakashi "you were saying?" he asked smugly.

Kakashi sighed "I hate you brat, I really do." taking a deep breath Kakashi seemed to gather himself before speaking "well as I was given the messages it appears that all three of you pass thanks to Naruto" he said to Sakura and Sasuke's shock.

"No way...we passed because of Naruto-baka?" Sakura asked not sure wether to be horrified or happy.

"The dobe got lucky" Sasuke muttered.

"How did you get the messages?" Kakashi asked staring intently at Naruto.

"I asked the old man about the test and he told me" Naruto grinned "using the same two tests over and over again you sure are predictable Kakashi-sensei."

"That's cheating" Sakura screeched.

"You're ninja" Kakashi pointed out "you're expected to cheat." Giving one last sigh he cut the ropes binding his genin "meet me at training ground seven tomorrow morning, seven am should be good enough" he muttered before walking away dejectedly.

After giving a small dejected sigh of his own Naruto made his way back to the village, he had a new job to get to.

…

"Now that everyone has gathered," the Hokage said to the jonin "I would like to hear the results of your tests and what your thoughts are on your genin. Kakashi?"

Everyone turned and stared at the silver haired ninja who gave a small sigh. "Team Seven pass" he muttered, he was after all looking forward to NOT having to babysit some genin.

The gathered jonin looked at him in shock while the Hokage just ave a small smile "and your thoughts on your team?"

"Sasuke seems to be focused on revenge and hates his team-mates. Sakura is obsessed with being Mrs Sasuke and has no thoughts for anything else. Naruto is to put it simply an idiot in some ways but he has done what no one else has tried and actually prepared for the exam so must have some braincells," Kakashi answered.

The Hokage nodded "and their skills?" he prompted.

"Sasuke seems to be aware of some low level fire Jutsu, he is also an excellent marksman with his kunai and shuriken, he does need to work on his taijutsu and stealth a bit more. Sakura is a failure in most aspects her only redeeming feature is her stealth which I believe is used mainy in stalking Sasuke. Naruto despite poor choice in weaponry is reasonably competent with that sword of his, I haven't seen him attempt any Jutsu and with his chakra reserves his control would make most Jutsu impossible anyway, he is semi-competent with his stealth."

The Hokage nodded once more "Asuma your team?" he asked.

….

….

….

AN: So yeah that's that chapter done sorry about the delay internet has been dead. Now for a response to the reviews Im not going to do each person indidvidually more each point individually so stay with me for a minute.

Point 1 Sasuke is a dick: Yes he is a dick, in cannon he is a dick and I'm sure most of you hate him I know I do but there's something to point out. Sasuke in my opinion is meant to be hated, he is meant to be the guy the fans don't like he is the guy everybody loves to hate. Yes I want him to suffer and die but I honestly think the story would be better with him than without him so sorry but I'm not gonna kill duckbut just yet. Also a good story that does Sasuke really well in my opinion is SIPA Shinobi Institute of Performance Analysis you guys should check it out.

Point2 Naruto is an idiot: Yup no question about it he is very 'special' and I hate it however he got a huge ass sword that does not make him a genius, he will get smarter but it takes time so I am sorry but if you can't handle him being an idiot for a few more chapters then you may need to find a new story, if you can handle it then thank you and I promise it will get better.

Point 3 one trick pony: no Naruto won't be a one trick pony, he will learn other things beside just the sword I just plan to spread them out a bit and have a few ideas though I have no idea if any of them will work. If there is something you want Naruto to learn feel free to tell me :) Same with elemental affinity if you want to change his one.

Point 4 T and I: I see your reasoning but just think you've seen Gaara right? Well think after knowing what Gaara is like would YOU have the guts to torture a Jinchuriki wether or not it was willing? If so then you sir have balls of steel. Sorry but it's not gonna happen as there are too many things that could go wrong in the process, I like the idea though :)

I think that's everything and to all of you as I said if you want him to learn something or be different or take a set path please let me know I won't make promises but I am always happy to get new ideas...unless its mpreg sorry but no just no.

Oh right this is the general idea of what his clothes look like now, I'm asking the artist if I can use the image for the story pic art/naruto-73287883