Chapter 4- The Mirror Flower and the Pinwheel

Naruto could be found lying on the grass in the clearing with his goggles off, staring into the sky. It was a clear night and the now waning moon was a beautiful sight along with the stars that dotted the midnight sky. The moonlight was gently glimmering off of his silvery pupils as he stared towards the heavens.

He was at peace. Right now, he could show his beautiful eyes to the world and not have a care. The blond didn't have to wear the mask he always did; here it didn't matter.

Despite this, he had a battle in a couple hours against Sakura and Sasuke in a two-on-one match and he just mastered the Hyouton jutsu he wanted. They wanted to see what was under the goggles, but he just wanted the thrill of victory… and to smother Sasuke's face with it.

But right now, that didn't matter to him. He just wanted a chance to give his body a break so he'd be at full potential for the battle. Hopefully, he could change into the other Limits he gained without a hitch.

He knew he didn't want to, but, nonetheless, he slowly willed his aching body to rise and to train more. Naruto wanted to learn that Water Release: Water Guillotine, but it required a good deal of practice. In the end, the ability to splice an opponent in half would be well worth the effort in the future.


Sakura looked down at her aching, tender hands as she took a break. She looked up as she felt someone pour water onto them, soothing some of the discomfort she was experiencing. Sasuke stood over her, screwing the cap back onto the bottle he poured the water from.

"You should be a little more cautious with that technique or otherwise your hands will just get worse," the ebony-haired boy warned.

He took a seat next to her, as he decided to rest after having just completed the training for Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique. His pink-haired teammate was also training with a new fire move he happened to know, but her reserves were so small that it was the only thing he could teach her without her suffering from chakra exhaustion.

"Do you think we're going to win?" Sakura asked out of the blue.

Sasuke turned to her bearing a calm smile. "How can we not lose? Unless Dobe throws something out there we don't know about, the battle should be pretty easy."

"Yeah, I guess, but what if we're both right and he does throw out this random Bloodline Limit?"

At that, the Uchiha shrugged, "Don't know; we'll just have to adapt when it comes, but seriously, what could it be?"

Both of them sat in silence as they thought about it. Naruto had to have a Limit, but what was it and what could it do? There were so many outcomes to the question that the two gave up thinking about it several hours earlier.

"Okay, let's get back to work, but expel the fire this time. Don't hold it or otherwise your hands will get worse," coached Sasuke as he slowly stood.

Sakura nodded and quickly joined him. Both members of Team Seven got into a basic battle stance and went back to their training. It was almost morning and they had to get ready for their battle with Naruto.


Kakashi sat on the roof of the house as he waited for morning to arrive. If any other jounin got close enough, they would've gawked in disbelief at the fact that the man didn't have his nose in his perverted book for once in his life. Honestly, there was too much to think about to try and relax.

He spent the good deal of the night thinking about the Kyoukagan. It was an awesome Limit that many would be very hard pressed to even match. So many people would want those eyes, whether by stealing it or by arranged marriage –the latter of the two would be a product of the clans of Konoha trying to get a hold of it.

The scarecrow was pretty sure someone from the Yanamaka clan would try to have a go at it, speaking that they had a female around Naruto's age. He wasn't so sure about the Hyuga clan, but he was pretty sure the elders would make a push for it. There were others, but he doubted they would have as big of a voice.

Then there was the Kyoukagan itself. The basic abilities alone were impressive, such as being able to copy other Limits and sense people with a Limit.

Of course, it also had its drawbacks. Naruto's skill with each Limit was limited and he would need to train with each one before he could fully master them. The eyes also only allowed one Limit at a time to be used, and the blond could only change Limits three times before it got dangerous due to time constraints. Also, his clones couldn't use it either, which was a serious limitation. If anything, these problems balanced out the good in the Kyoukagan. It may be a miracle vine at first glance, but the weaknesses also made it a weed from Hell. With practice, though, it could be a very powerful weapon.

Finally, there was Naruto's attitude towards it all. Sasuke viewed the Sharingan as a means for vengeance; the blond on the other hand viewed his as a powerful gift and as something not to abuse. He asked for permission to copy the Byaku Chakra when he could have done so without it. It just showed the difference in their personality.

Looking up towards the horizon, he sighed as could see the palette of colors slowly painting the sky, signifying morning's arrival. The battle was soon and he needed to watch it to make sure nobody killed anyone.

With that final thought, he jumped off the roof and walked into the house to get some coffee.


Sakura and Sasuke walked up to the house to grab some breakfast near eight o'clock. They needed to get some food into their stomachs before they fought their blond teammate; otherwise, it would be a repeat of the bell test.

The green-eyed kunoichi mastered the fire technique Sasuke decided to teach her. It was basic, but with her small reserves it was the best he could offer. She was nowhere near the chakra monster Naruto was, and she doubted she could pull half the attacks Sasuke could, but she made due.

Both of them were greeted by their sensei: "Ah, I see you guys came in for breakfast."

"Have you seen Naruto yet?" asked Sasuke as he took a seat at the table, shortly joined by Sakura.

Kakashi nodded his head in confirmation. "Yes, as a matter of fact he was here about an hour ago to eat, but he quickly went back to his favorite clearing to train some more."

Sasuke nodded as he dug into his food. Both Sakura and he were tired because of the lack of sleep and a large amount of training. So, both of them decided they were going to relax before they walked up to the clearing where the fight would take place.

Inari could be seen at the other end of the table, death glaring the Haruno and Uchiha. He couldn't just sabotage the battle or otherwise his surrogate big brother would get mad. But that didn't mean he could come and watch; he really did want to see Naruto go full out in a battle.

"Alright, I guess I should be a good sensei and give some advice to my students," spoke the copy-cat as he sat his eating utensils on the now empty plate.

This quickly got Sasuke and Sakura's attention. What did they need to know about their blond teammate they didn't already? He only used the Shadow Clone Technique and relied mostly on taijutsu. They would admit that Naruto could come up with some brilliant plans on the wire, but that was if he'd hunker down and think or keep his temper in check.

"I imagine you're wondering why I'm doing this," continued the copy-cat, "but let me be the first to say that Naruto has experienced a spike in strength ever since his battle with the fake hunter-nin. My only advice is to not underestimate him, or otherwise you'll lose."

"How has he gotten stronger?" asked Sasuke with a grimace –this didn't sound too good.

Kakashi thought about it for a moment before he told them: "Training. Lots and lots of training. I do believe he added another jutsu to his arsenal, but I can't be sure of that one. But again I say: don't underestimate your opponent. That is the quickest deciding factor in shinobi battles; keep that in mind and you'll do great."

"It shouldn't be a problem," spoke Sasuke with a smirk. "I mean, I do have my Sharingan and Sakura has learned a new technique."

The scarecrow just shook his head in exasperation. "True, the Sharingan is a tool –a powerful tool- but nonetheless, you should not take it for granted. Get cocky and you're going to lose."

Naruto can understand this; it took him less than three seconds to understand this lesson. Hell, he discovered it on his own without me having to tell him, thought the copy-cat. I guess you're going to have to learn some humility, Sasuke. It's sad that you're called a genius, but Naruto has learned, by far, more than you.

"Now that I have given you my advice, I'm going to find Naruto and give some that he may need," he said as he excused himself from the table.

"Wait, why are you helping both sides?" asked Sakura.

Kakashi put a hand up to his face as he thought about it for a minute. "Because you're all my students and I want to give you all equal chances. Now, if you'll excuse me, I will be heading to talk to Naruto. Oh, and relax or otherwise you'll burn out your bodies before the fight."

Both of them nodded as he left. Sakura left to go up to her room to take a nap while Sasuke did likewise after they were done eating.


Naruto was quietly sitting down with his legs crossed as he stared at the pond in front of him with something akin to annoyance.

For the past couple hours, he trained to use the Water Release: Water Guillotine, but to say the move was difficult to master would have been an understatement. The water needed to splice things had to be absolutely sharp; otherwise, the most that'd be accomplished was making the opponent wet. This required fine-tuned chakra control in order to sharpen the guillotine's edges, something Naruto severely lacked. Supposedly, one could sharpen them enough to slice a metal kunai in half, but again, it required control.

Despite this, the blond continued through the night to get it. He had gotten down the basics, but the sharpening part was killing him.

"You look like you had a good night," noted the copy-cat as he walked into the clearing.

Naruto looked up with a smile on his face, but it quickly changed into an aggravated scowl as he stared back at the water.

"I've been trying to get this water jutsu down, but I can't sharpen the edges," explained Naruto.

"Mind telling me what technique it is? I might be able to help you," offered Kakashi as he sat down next to him.

"It's called Water Release: Water Guillotine, but like I said, I can't sharpen it."

"Sounds like a good move; never quite heard of it though."

"That's because Haku invented it before he died. It's a B-class jutsu."

The wiry man gave a low whistle as he listened to the info about the attack. Not only did it sound good, but it was obviously a very effective attack.

"That would explain it," said Kakashi, grabbing his student's attention. "You would probably need to know the water walking exercise before you master it. If it's a jounin class attack, it would need equal control, but I doubt you'll be able to learn it in a couple hours."

Naruto hung his head as he took in what he had to do. The attack just seemed to be out of his reach, but he would get it sooner or later.

"So, what do you plan on doing during the fight?" asked Kakashi.

Naruto looked at him for a second as he thought about. He was too busy training to come up with a plan of attack, but now that he thought about it, it would be smart to come up with something. But he promised himself one thing, though.

"I don't want to use the Sharingan," the blond muttered with finality.

The Hatake raised an eyebrow as he looked at his student. "Why would that be? You copied it, therefore you should use it."

"Yeah, but it's Sasuke's and I don't want to fight like that prick," answered the sun-kissed boy with another scowl.

"So, I'm just going to assume that you're going to use Hyouton and Byaku Chakra."

"I'm definitely going to use Hyouton, but I don't know about the Byaku Chakra, mainly because I don't know how to fully use it." Naruto then turned to his teacher with hopeful eyes. "You wouldn't mind teaching me to use it would you?"

Kakashi smiled under his mask as he heard him. That's what he loved about teaching Naruto. He was so open to learning something new, whether it was just another lesson or a new jutsu.

The scarecrow could probably attest this to the academy when the blond was there and how they might've stunted the boy's growth by holding him back. If this was true, it was possible Naruto could've been at Sasuke's level in latent talent alone. This further explained why he absorbed everything he was taught like a sponge.

"No, I don't have a problem," said Kakashi as he stood and put his hands in his pockets, "But you're going to have to go through a couple quick lessons without using your Limit; otherwise, you lose your chance to switch Limits in battle, and we don't want that."

"No problem, but what are you going to teach me?" Naruto was immediately on his feet with his foxy grin, waiting for the lesson.

His teacher turned to him with a slight smile at the boy's eagerness. "Well, for starters, I'll be honest and say that I don't use it often because it messes with my Sharingan, which might be good for you with your battle with Sasuke and Sakura; also partly because my reserves are small. But this shouldn't be a problem for you because of your naturally high reserves thanks to the Kyuubi."

"Alright, I can see some of that, but what are you supposed to do?" asked the blond again.

"Well," continued the former ANBU captain, "Byaku Chakra is a very taijutsu oriented Limit. You constantly have to saturate the air with it, but by doing so, you allow a whole different form of hand-to-hand combat. This also gives you a larger sense of touch as people within the range of the saturated air can be sensed, whether or not you're looking at them. Let me give you a demonstration."

Naruto watched as his sensei walked over to a nearby tree and took out his hands from his pockets. Immediately, the blond could sense the chakra fill the air, centering on his teacher.

Then his eyes widened as Kakashi lightly punched the tree, but kept an inch away from it. Not even a second later, the side of the tree splintered, leaving a hole about a foot wide.

"How the…?!" spoke the dumfounded blond.

"Chakra displacement," Kakashi answered the half-spoken question. "I gathered the chakra I placed in the air into my fist and released it, but it released so fast that I smashed the tree."

Naruto became even more shocked as he saw his teacher step ten feet away and then make a punching motion again, gathering the chakra in the air. He then heard a punch knock some of the bark of the tree; it didn't do nearly as much damage as the last attack, but it was still something worth seeing.

"As you can see," explained Kakashi as he put his hands back into his pockets; at the same time, his body became a black hole, sucking in all the loose white chakra in the air, "using the same attack I can send punches through the air to about ten feet, but as you saw, the attack was about the same as if I was going to normally attack someone. The closer you are the more damage."

"When will I be able to learn that!?" said Naruto with a grin that threatened to split his face in half.

"I'm afraid that you won't be able to learn it for a while." The blond boy's smile quickly became an annoyed look as his teacher explained it to him. "Byaku Chakra is actually difficult to control because it's so much denser than normal chakra. As a matter of fact, if you used it, your chakra capacity may even triple. I would teach you this now, but the control this requires is comparable to the Hyuga Jyuuken."

"Then why show me all that cool stuff if I can't learn it now?" asked Naruto as he scratched the back of his head.

"I wanted to give you an example, but I also wanted you to try and use the chakra saturation that you saw. It's just a matter of you continually releasing it into the air. And, like I said before, it can mess over some doujutsu and make it to where the Sharingan can't fully copy things. Got that?"

His student bobbed his head up and down rapidly. It as a lot to take in, but watching the Byaku Chakra in full action was absolutely awesome. He couldn't wait to use it against his rival.

"Now that I've given you your hint like your other teammates, I'm going to go and relax for the rest of the time. Good luck with the water jutsu."

Naruto watched as his sensei walked out of the clearing while dragging out his little orange book. He quickly got back to his water jutsu, still troubled with sharpening the water curtain.


Twelve o'clock didn't come slow enough as Sasuke and Sakura slowly made their way to the clearing they agreed to meet everyone at. As they stepped into it, they found Naruto already there, sitting on rock with his legs crossed while wearing his infamous foxy grin.

"You still up to this Dobe?" asked Sasuke, wearing his superiority smirk.

Naruto adopted a serious look that he had only seen when there was a battle to be fought, just like when they were going to fight the fake hunter-nin.

"I would eat my own sandals before I'd back down from you!" yelled the blond from across the clearing.

Everyone turned as Kakashi made his appearance in the clearing with a puff of smoke. It was odd to see him without his nose in his famous book for once. But he had to be serious for this event. The infamous Sharingan was going against the Kyoukagan, a Bloodline Limit that copied other Limits. He had to be.

Naruto stood up and jumped off the rock as Kakashi's voice was rang from his position across the clearing, "Alright, I want a fair, clean match. Anything goes, but there will be no killing. If I feel things are getting out of hand, I will intervene. Now, it's a two on one match with Naruto against Sasuke and Sakura. Fighters ready?"

Naruto nodded and quickly shattered his eyes with a quick spike of chakra. He still didn't have a clue which Limit he was going to start with, but he was still going to give hell, even if one of his enemies right now was the girl he was crushing on.

Sasuke activated his Doujutsu, like Naruto, while Sakura flipped out a kunai. They had a small plan ready before they came to the clearing, but it was dependent on a lot of things.

"BEGIN!" yelled their teacher.

Naruto made the first move as he jumped backwards, all the while doing his favorite hand seal. Another second later, ten clones appeared and began to charge the Uchiha and Haruno.

Sasuke tracked them all with the Sharingan and began his counter attack while Sakura began swiping at them with her knife. Thirty seconds later, the clones were destroyed and both quickly set their sights on their teammate, but it was long enough for him to decide what he was going to use.

Naruto could feel the shards falling out of his eyes, signaling an active Limit, but nobody saw due to the goggles. Even Kakashi was wondering what he had chosen to use. The blond once again did another hand seal and formed at least twenty clones, beginning another surge of attacks.

This time, the duo had gotten tired of taijutsu and both began to do hand seals.

Sakura was the first one done. "Fire Release: Ember Shot!"

Sasuke had likewise finished his. "Fire Release: Immortal Phoenix Flame!"

The pink haired kunoichi began to fire off small fireballs from the palms of her hand while Sasuke pelted off even bigger, faster flames from his mouth. The combined attack quickly burned all the clones, even as Naruto kept on making them. Finally, the blond felt it was time to reveal his new move for all to see.

Sasuke watched with a smile as he saw Naruto go through six hand seals, but his smirk fell of quickly as his Sharingan saw the workings of the jutsu, but wasn't allowing him to copy it.

What the hell?! What's going on!? Sasuke confusedly shouted in his mind.

He quickly got his answer as Naruto took a deep breath: "Ice Release: Frostbite!"

The blond blew outwards, sending an icy wind that quickly froze whatever it touched with a very thin layer of ice. It quickly doused the fires the duo started, causing them to take a step back in caution. Naruto quickly went through them again and breathed another ice wind, making the two dodge by jumping to the side.

"Sasuke-kun!"

The aforementioned boy looked to where he heard his name and saw Sakura gripping her left arm. His eyes picked up a thin layer of frost that was slowly going up the side of her arm, encasing it and making her skin go pale. She had been unlucky enough to get the tail end of the attack.

"My arm, it's numb! I can't move it!" she yelled towards him with wide eyes.

Sasuke rounded on Naruto with his fury starting to burn at him again, but before he could even start the hand seals for another attack, his blond teammate finished up another set. Another cold wind struck where he was standing and like everything else the icy wind caressed, everything developed a thin layer of frost.

Sakura tried to distract her teammate long enough so that her partner could finish some hand seals and quickly began to pelt Naruto with kunai with only her good arm. The blond saw it all coming and pulled his own knife, blocking all the attacks, but it wasn't enough as a few managed to get past his guard, leaving him with a couple cuts.

"Fire Release: Grand Fireball Technique!"

Naruto ran through his own hand seals as quickly as possible. "Ice Release: Frostbite!"

Fire and ice clashed as the two attacks hit head on. Extreme heat and chilling cold pushed against the other, threatening to overtake the other. While the two played tug-o-war, Sakura took her chance as she got behind the distracted jinchuuriki. She once more began to pelt him, this time with shuriken, hoping to get a lucky hit.

Her efforts weren't in vain as Naruto got pinned with a couple of stars, making him lose concentration. The blond quickly abandoned ship as he jumped out of the way before he could get roasted.

On the other end of the attack Sasuke smirked as he felt another tomoa enter his eyes. Now things were going to get interesting.

The moment the jinchuuriki landed, he did his favorite hand seal, creating even more clones while he stood back, watched, and planned. They were quickly picked off as Sasuke began to mercilessly pound the clones with fireballs while Sakura resorted to exploding tags attached to her kunai, causing a couple craters.

The two jumped out of the way as another icy wind blew past them, but Sasuke found himself grinding his teeth as he felt his foot suddenly go numb. He tripped as he landed, but Sakura was already protecting him, pelting fireballs as she got her feeling back in her arm.

Naruto created a clone as the pink haired girl's attacks came at him. The clone promptly grabbed its creator and threw him into the air. Sakura looked above as Naruto did his favorite hand seal again, creating several aerial clones that dived at her. Her partner was already at her side as he finished his hand seals and sent another firestorm at the incoming human missiles.

A couple of the clones got past the blasts and began to attack the ebony-haired boy in taijutsu, but his Sharingan picked apart the attacks better than ever thanks to his new tomoa. His self victory was quickly denounced as he felt a couple of the blond boy's punches connect with his back, causing him to stumble a bit. He quickly rounded on them and finished them off with several quick attacks.

The Uchiha turned his attention elsewhere and ran to Sakura's side as she was thrown to the ground. Grabbing a set of kunai, he quickly launched them at the clones, but they quickly dodged. He smiled, though, as he maneuvered the stars with near invisible wires, causing them to hit a good deal of the clones and making them disappear with a puff of smoke. One of them even hit the genuine article.

Taking full advantage of the opening, he quickly sent another grand fireball towards the blond, but as the attack hit, the flames split apart as his enemy began to retaliate with another frostbitten wind.

Naruto felt confused as the attack suddenly stopped, but found the reason as Sakura came up to his side and slashed at him with her knife. It managed to cut him on the hand, but nothing too deep.

Unfortunately for his teammate, some of the blood launched from the wound, landing right into her eyes and making her give a pained yelp.

"Sakura-chan!" yelled Naruto as he watched her stumble back while trying to rub at her eyes furiously.

"Stop the match for a second!" yelled Kakashi as he trotted next to her.

Sasuke stopped, but with an angry grunt, while Naruto looked on with worry, clutching his lightly bleeding hand. Thankfully, the wound was already closing up as the Kyuubi's chakra poured into it.

Kakashi had Sakura open her eyes to see that they were bloodshot. Digging into his pouch he pulled out a water bottle and quickly began to rinse her eyes.

After he got the blood out, he felt his visible eye widen as he saw red splotches on her irises. A second later, they faded into the normally vibrant green eyes.

There was something just a little off about that.

He quickly turned to the other members of Team Seven that were looking on with worry. "Sakura can no longer fight for reasons out of our hands. Continue the fight when I say."

Both of them nodded and watched as the only female member of Team Seven walked beside her teacher while rubbing furiously at her eyes, even as she sat down on the boulder next to Kakashi.

"Alright, begin again!" announced the copy-cat.

Sasuke already launched himself at Naruto at high speeds. Even if Sakura was out, he wanted those goggles to come off, and there was no way that he was going to allow the Dobe to win!

Seeing his enemy coming at him, Naruto formed more clones and charged at him. With the Sharnigan, the Uchiha stopped his charge and began to pick off clones as they came near him. But the blonds quickly disappeared while the real one fired off another Ice Release: Frostbite.

Sasuke wasn't about to take the attack rolling over. He flashed through his own hand seals and fired off several fireballs, attacking the wind and slowing it down before it could layer him in ice.

As he finished up with his initial attack, he finished another set of seals and breathed another grand fireball that pushed back the icy in wind in full, but his target was launched into the air before he could take the hit by a clone he summoned.

Just as Naruto landed a distance away, Sasuke rocketed into the air and threw more shuriken. The blond watched with a smile as he saw all of them go around him.

"Ha! Your aim sucks… ACK!" the blond stopped as he got tied to a nearby tree.

Sasuke tightened the wires while smirking as he went through a quick set of hand seals. His teammate knew he was in trouble, especially when he saw the fire building up on the wires.

He had only one shot at this; one mishap and he was going to get fried like a toad on an open fire. The Kyoukagan user shattered his eyes and removed the stormy colored irises associated with Hyouton users and changed his eye color in favor a Byaku Chakra user.

Just as the fire got halfway down the wires, the blond made his counterattack and shoved raw, white chakra into the wires and down towards the Uchiha at the other end. Sasuke looked in disbelief as a white chakra cut past the fire and straight at him. With what felt like an electrical shock, he flew backwards as he was hit with the raw chakra, loosening the binds on the blond.

As quickly as he could before Sasuke could recover, he pulled out a shuriken and began to charge it with Byaku Chakra, making the weapon glow white. Sasuke stood up, but watched as Naruto threw weapon. Normally, a simple throwing star would make a simple whistling sound as it cut through the air, but Naruto's sounded like a buzz-saw gone crazy.

Out of panic, the ebony haired boy pulled out a kunai and blocked the incoming star, only to watch as the weapon continued to push into his weapon, making him stumble backwards. When the shuriken finally stopped, the weapon smoldered from the friction while his kunai was sliced halfway through.

He quickly jumped out of the way as ten more of the stars-gone-demented swept past him.

Naruto then got the bright idea of using a kunai instead. Unlike Kakashi, he put the chakra into the knife rather than coat it with the white chakra.

Sasuke looked towards Naruto, but quickly bent his knees backwards as his Sharingan barely caught a glimpse of a weapon of some kind screaming past his face. Everyone watched as the knife shot into the side of the tree and made it explode, showering the area with splinters.

Needless to say, the maelstrom liked what he saw and pulled out all of his remaining kunai. Sasuke got back up from his fall in time to jump into the air to dodge nine whistling, white kunai with a tails of white chakra in their wake. Where the knives hit, craters formed from the sheer speed and force the kunai packed.

Naruto looked up to see Sasuke going through hand seals for one last attack, a very large Fire Release: Grand Fireball Technique. The blond caught on to what this meant: it was the end of the battle and time for one last attack. He quickly began to pour as much chakra as he could into his last weapon, hoping to be able to cut the fire like he did last time and get to his target.

Kakashi saw what was coming and began to worry for his students' lives. Before the final blows could be unleashed he went through his own hand seals faster than the two combined.

Both of the boys looked to the left in time for a whistling gale of wind to sweep through the area and send them flying into the trees, making them lose concentration on their attacks and allowing the chakra charging their attacks to escape.

Before they could ask what happened, they heard Kakashi's voice ring through the clearing. "Due to the threat of you two killing each other, I call this match a draw."

"HEY, I WAS ABOUT TO WIN!" shouted Naruto in retaliation.

Sasuke didn't answer but he looked absolutely murderous. Kakashi stared at them for a long while, trying to get it through their thick skulls just how much danger they were in.

"I said in the rules not to kill each other," the silver-haired man told them harshly. "What you both were about to do would have, at the least, caused serious injury, or even worse; for that reason, I decided it was fit for me to intervene."

Sasuke ground his teeth in aggravation. Victory was so close that he could taste it. Had he been given another second, he would now be seeing what was beyond the goggles.

Naruto on the other hand realized what he almost done and began to hang his head in shame. Had he thrown that knife, it would have cut through the fire and then it might have shot straight through Sasuke, probably killing him. He had lost control, so intent to grasp victory and show the Teme that he was more than a dead last.

"I'm sorry sensei," muttered Naruto as he slowly got up.

"It's okay, but don't let this happen again," the wiry man spoke, this time with a much softer voice.


The walk home was quiet, except for when Sakura would growl in annoyance and scratch her eyes.

Throughout the trip back, the Uchiha heir kept thinking to himself. He saw how the kunai began to glow white and how much chakra Naruto was pouring into it. Would he have won if his opponent threw that weapon? The white chakra he saw did cut through the fire he had sent down the wires.

It hit him like a sledgehammer. Had Naruto thrown that knife, the win would have gone to the Dobe. He grinded his teeth at the thought of losing to the dead last. He would have won and he, the Uchiha, the most elite of Konoha, would have been under the village idiot's feet.

That wasn't mentioning the unique ice move he saw the blond use. He couldn't copy it no matter how many times he watched Naruto go through the hand seals. That wasn't right; the Sharingan could copy almost anything as long as it wasn't a Bloodline…

That's when he realized it: the blond did have a Limit of some kind at his disposal. Now he felt like crap. Knowing Naruto and he shared a common characteristic like that didn't make him feel any better.

Even though he didn't know it, he accepted Naruto as his rival that very moment. It was no longer a joke. The blond could match him, as evidenced by his duel in the forest. He had to get stronger or otherwise he was going to lose this arms race.

He heard a cough and turned to Sakura to see that she was starting to look sick. Her eyes were glazed over while her cheeks were beginning to take a pink hue, a sign she was experiencing a fever.

Event though he wouldn't admit it to anybody, he did feel a small connection with her. She had stuck with him through those plans to get Naruto talking, but he really began to take notice of her that night when they trained. He got a small look into her soul and could see that she was more than the fan girl he knew.

And even though he wouldn't admit to anyone, looking at her now, he was beginning to worry for her health.

"Sakura, are you okay? You're starting to look sick," he asked nonchalantly.

"Yeah, I'm fine, but my eyes are killing me and giving me a headache," Sakura answered.

Even Kakashi was looking at her with worry. He couldn't place why she would be sick all of a sudden, but he could tell it wasn't good.

"Sorry about getting some blood in your eyes," Naruto apologized, looking upset.

Everyone was relieved as they caught sight of the house, finally glad that they were going to get some rest after the day's events.

Kill Joy no Jutsu (A.K.A. Author's Note): Well, here's the next chapter. It came out much sooner, but the reviews made me bounce off the walls and gave some incentive to write some more. Hope you all like the small fight scene, but since it isn't as major of a battle that we can expect to see later on during the Chunin Exams (thus why it's a little shorter than I'm known for).

I hoped by giving these other abilities to Kakashi I can give you all a better idea of what the Howaido Chakra is capable of, but don't expect Naruto to learn it for a while. He just knows how to super charge the weapons but that's it. Our favorite blond unfortunately lacks a lot of control, but Kakashi will definitely fix that.

This is the last chapter for the Wave arc and we'll be heading to Konoha. Just letting you all know.

I understand there are some mysteries going down now (I doubt I have to tell you all what they are) and I won't be able to tell you all until the Chunin Exam arc. Oh well.

Now onto the original jutsu and limits.

Forbidding Scroll of Techniques:

Fire Release: Ember Shot- Jujutsu- High D Rank- A simple fire jutsu that requires a person to concentrate the necessary heat into the palms of the hands. Very simple to learn and a good starting point for people who might turn into firebugs. Despite the simplicity, the fireballs are smaller than normal, and therefore easier to counter.

Ice Release: Frostbite- Bloodline Limit- No Rank- One of Haku's attacks before he passed away. Rather than starting with water chakra and inserting wind chakra to create ice, this does the exact opposite, putting the water chakra into the wind chakra. When used, it freezes air particles causing frost and extreme cold for anyone that the wind hits. If hit, it causes first degree frostbite and prevents a person from using chakra for a short while. Though, if the user does it wrong, they could end up accidentally freezing their windpipe.