Hey guys, realised as I went through my first two chapters I had a few spelling and grammar mishaps, might go back and fix those when i get around to it. In the meantime I'd submit this next chapter, that more or less just continues the development and sets things up. YAY! Anyway I'll get back to writing the land of waves arc after I get raped by this engineering assignment. That and borderlands 2 is out, so don't expect an update every second day :P :) Enjoy

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

The Champion of Clan Namikaze

Chapter 3: The Bell Test

Training Ground 21 - Konoha

As Sasuke entered the training field, Naruto dropped down from a tree next to him.

Since when can dobe sneak up on me like that! I didn't know he was there until he wanted me to. Something is definitely different about him that's for sure.

"Hey dobe," Sasuke said coolly, playing off the fact that Naruto had actually gotten the drop on him, "still got that grand idea in your head that you can beat me, even after everything in the academy?"

"Hahaha," Naruto chuckled, "Don't expect me to be as weak I used to be Sasuke, I've learnt a few new tricks since then. If we all pass this test you can fight me afterwards, settle this little issue you have with thinking you are better than everyone."

"Tch, why would I waste my time fighting someone who I know I can beat? Besides, do you even know how to use that sword?" There's only one person I want to fight.

"You might change your tune after this test, depends on what we have to do. Anyway whatever it is it's probably going to test our teamwork, so we should start working together if we want to be a successful squad."

"Yeah whatever dobe," Sasuke grumbled as he went and leant against a tree, waiting for Kakashi and Sakura to arrive.

It didn't take long for a shrill "Hey SASUKE!" to be heard from across the grounds.

Oh man, how was I ever attracted to that, I mean she's pretty, but that voice, it's going to give me migraines. Come to think of it, was I always that loud too?

Sakura ran over to Sasuke, not paying the slightest amount of attention to the fact that Naruto was there, but before she could start harassing him Kakashi appeared in a swirl of leaves, his face planted in a book that Naruto by now knew was Icha Icha after having gone through his parents' library. He'd figured by now that perversion was something that onset at puberty or something, every old guy he knew was a pervert.

"Okay guys, today you have to pass a test to see if you truly have what it takes to be genin of Konoha. If you do not past this test it is within my rights to send you back to the academy or remove you from the program all together," at this both Sasuke and Sakura looked shocked and betrayed that Konoha would do such a thing, Naruto however had a stern expression, thinking over what had been said so far, "I have here two bells. I'd like you to do your best to take them from me. Whoever doesn't have a bell in 3 hours will not pass."

"Alright well can we begin Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked before Sakura could pipe up about the injustice of it all.

"You may." He said turning his attention back to Icha Icha.

From everything the academy told me Sasuke is the one that's going to give me the most trouble, although that Naruto is the Yondaime's son, surely he can't be as hopeless as the academy teachers say he is.

With that Sasuke and Sakura both launched themselves into the foliage above, Sasuke to scope out the situation, and Sakura because she was following Sasuke. Naruto just stood in the shade of the tree as Kakashi remained in the middle of training ground.

This is going to be easy. Naruto thought to himself as he prepared to throw his kunai.

Dobe what are you doing, don't stand out in the open like that!

Naruto launched two Hiraishin kunai at Kakashi, intentionally throwing slightly wide, so that Kakashi wouldn't be tempted to move from his position. Naruto could tell the man had an apathetic nature, why make him move when he was in a perfect position? Kakashi looked up as the kunai flew toward him.

Why would he throw those? He isn't a very good throw if that's the best he's got, they are both going wide.

Hah! Dobe, what a crap throw, still the worst out of all of us I see, and he thinks he can beat me!

There was a strange feeling in Kakashi's gut though, but by the time he realised what the problem was it was too late. Naruto saw the look of surprise on the face of his sensei just before he disappeared.

Naruto materialised just to Kakashi's left as a kunai passed on either side of him. Slashing out with his tanto held firmly in his right hand in a draw and re-sheath motion he cut the strings to the bells off Kakashi's belt in the blink of an eye, grabbing them in his left hand. "Too slow sensei," Naruto said before disappearing and reappearing on the other side of the field, already retrieving his kunai.

What just happened! One second Naruto was on one side of the field, the next he was on the other with the bells in his hand! Sakura hadn't even seen Naruto materialise next to Kakashi it had happened so fast.

How did he get so fast? That has to be some technique; there is no way he covered that distance on foot, it must have something to do with those kunai. It's NOT FAIR; I'M THE ONE THAT NEEDS THAT POWER.

And so the yellow flash of Konoha returns, well this is big news. Kakashi thought to himself after getting over his initial shock.

Naruto Shun Shinned back over to the tree he was originally standing under, still quick, but in the end nowhere near as fast as his previous movements.

Kakashi walked back over to the trio as Sakura and Sasuke dropped down from their hiding places, meanwhile Naruto had walked up to Sakura and Sasuke and given each of them a bell.

"B-b-but why would you give us a bell," Sakura asked, still shocked at the turn of events.

"Because I got them without the help of you and Sasuke, you didn't even get to show off your skills. It's kind of unfair to you. That being said I'd kind of already worked out the point of the test anyway. I mean have you ever heard of a three man squad? It was a test of teamwork, I kind of invalidated it though, soooo," he said turning to Kakashi, "do we pass Kakashi-sensei?"

"Hahaha I guess I have no choice but to pass you three, I mean otherwise I'd have to come up with another test, and I couldn't be bothered," eye smiling at the three as he said this.

They all face faulted.

"Anyway that was incredible Naruto, since when have you been able to do the Hiraishin no Jutsu (Flying Thunder God Technique)?"

So that's what it was, the signature jutsu of the Yondaime, I should have known. Sasuke thought bitterly at getting so utterly shown up by the dobe.

"Hahahaha that's my little secret, and I've by no means mastered it, but anyway, seeing as we passed and it's only been like a minute, do you want to see what I can really do?" Naruto asked with a smirk on his face.

"Don't get too cocky Naruto, I'd love to take you down a notch, although if I want to stand a chance against that speed, I'll need to use one of my own tricks." He said as he pulled up his hitai and opened his eye, surprising them with a fully awakened sharingan.

"Right well if you're getting that serious I better take off my weights," at this they all raised their eyebrows in surprise as all of the seals on his clothing flashed once, indicating that they'd been turned off.

"Ummm Naruto, how much weight were you wearing just then?" Sakura asked, curious as to how fast he'd be now.

"Oh not much, I need to bump up the number of seals when I get home. Each seal is equivalent to 10kg, all up 60kg."

Kakashi raised his eyebrows in surprise, the kid seemed quick even without the Hiraishin no Jutsu (Flying Thunder God Technique), he could only wonder what speed and strength he had now that he weighed half as much as before. He'd heard the story about the kid learning the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone technique) and creating a tonne of kage bunshin to fight Mizuki after he realised he'd been tricked. The story must be true, because this amount of progress would only have been possible for someone with the ability to create that many clones.

Sakura was shocked. This couldn't be the same Naruto, there was no way. Naruto was a goofy obnoxious prankster who couldn't even do a bunshin. How is it that he was now a serious shinobi who actually knew what he was doing, and was actually good at it?

Sasuke was fuming, he was furious that Naruto had been able to become so strong, that he was already what appeared to be Kakashi's favourite, even when Kakashi had a sharingan. He needed Kakashi, not Naruto, he needed to get stronger so he could destroy the man who ruined his life. How had the last in their class surpassed him in just over a month? No normal person should be able to progress at that speed. Little did Sasuke know that Naruto was no ordinary human being.

Over the past month, working as hard as he was working, and with the number of clones he could produce, he had accrued what would have been years of training and knowledge gathering for anybody else. Naruto wasn't even sure himself what number of clones he'd been creating, but even working for 6 hours a day, which was an extremely low estimate as there were days when he was working himself into the ground, with 200 clones, that was the equivalent of approximately 4 years training time alone, not including what he did with the rest of his day. Four years of training could result in a ridiculous amount of progress. And with the amount of material he had in his parent's study to go over; techniques, combat tactics, styles, fuuinjutsu, chakra manipulation and control, and original ideas for improving his current Jutsu he had no shortage of things to train.

Quick as a flash Naruto had launched a number of Hiraishin Kunai at Kakashi, again none of them looked to actually hit him, instead they had gone relatively low landing in the ground, which was what worried him, Naruto was trying to get a positional advantage over him.

He plans on using his strongest technique to corral me to try and force a mistake.

Naruto kept throwing the kunai, of which he had an almost endless supply, thanks to his dad's arsenal and a number of storage scrolls.

Kakashi made to rush Naruto to instead try and force a mistake from the boy but rather than running away and giving Kakashi time to make a string of hand seals Naruto simply disappeared, reappearing a few feet from the jounin underneath a kunai he'd just thrown with the tanto in his right hand bringing it around the front of his body in a backhand slash. Kakashi made to block with a kunai in his left hand and attack with his right but as his kunai and the tanto made contact Naruto brought around his left, forming a blue spiralling orb of chakra.

Kakashi hastily pushed off with his left hand and did a back handspring to get some distance from another one of the Yondaime's signature moves, all the while making sure not to come too close to any of the kunai lying on the ground.

Naruto wasn't giving him enough time to get a string of hand seals together for a jutsu, he was simply too quick with the Hiraishin no Jutsu (Flying Thunder God Technique)

He understands the advantage he has with that technique, and knows that things could change if I could get a jutsu off. But with an offensive like that with the use of the rasengan I can't afford to stand still, the kid formed it as he was punching me, incredible! If I give Naruto an opening for even a second he'll be on me. The worst part is that he's not looking me in the eyes. But Kakashi had a plan.

He continued back pedalling away from the incredibly quick Naruto, making sure to keep his defences up while staying away from any stray kunai that were on the ground or that Naruto was throwing, and started veering towards the river. If he could get onto the river Naruto wouldn't be able to rely on any stray kunai on the ground. He'd lessen the advantage of Naruto's Hiraishin no Jutsu (Flying Thunder God Technique) by a fair amount, but Naruto saw this and wasn't having any of it.

Kakashi had managed to force his hand somewhat. Naruto either had to get between Kakashi and the water, end the fight right then and there, or lose part of his advantage. Realising that Naruto threw two more hiraishin kunai at Kakashi. Kakashi waited as both kunai flew past him and turned to attack should Naruto appear. Naruto, surmising that Kakashi was about to counter the forced move, flashed to one of the kunai and released three more kunai directly at Kakashi before flashing away almost as soon as he arrived.

Running towards the water, Kakashi couldn't change his momentum fast enough to avoid the three point blank kunai and was forced to deflect them, wondering when Naruto was going to use them to appear. Instead Naruto had flashed to a location off to the side, with a kunai that he'd set up just before throwing the original two past Kakashi. He charged in from the side just as Kakashi attempted to deflect the three kunai. Kakashi turned just as Naruto thrust out a rasengan in his right hand which he was forced to reel away from, but surprisingly Naruto let the rasengan fade just before following through with a left handed punch that connected with Kakashi's chest.

The punch connected, Naruto channelled a burst of chakra to the end of his fist at the exact correct moment and Kakashi exploded in to fine rain of splinters, having performed Kawarimi no Jutsu(Body Replacement Technique) at the last second.

"Very impressive Naruto, but that's enough for today I think, I should go and report the results of the bell test to the Hokage and would rather not be turned into a fine red paste, man you pack a hit if you managed to do that to a log. Also never ever underestimate the power of a log. It may very well save your life one day, let that be a lesson to all of you," he said to his students as he walked out of the tree line with an eye smile, "Now I need to be going, meet me at the Hokage's building tomorrow at 9:00 to pick up our first mission." and he disappeared in a whirl of leaves.

xXx

As the three rookie genin began walking back into the main part of town Naruto turned to them, "so do you guys have anywhere you need to be for the rest of the day?"

They both looked at him cautiously, not sure how to answer before Sakura spoke up, "No not really why?" She had no reason not to tell the truth, even if she was talking to Naruto.

"What about you Sasuke?"

"No, dobe I don't have anywhere to be." Sasuke replied as grouchy as ever.

"Well then teme I was wondering if you guys wanted to come over to mine to train, now that we're a team?" even if they treated him harshly when they were at the academy, Naruto was getting over Sakura, and Sasuke had his reasons for being insufferable. They were on his team now, and if anything Naruto wanted them to improve as much as he had.

"Ummmmm I guess, but how do you have room to train?" Sakura was hesitant at first, but after seeing how Naruto performed during the test she saw no harm in training with him, he might be able to help her get better. Sasuke was thinking the same, that maybe if he trained with Naruto he could learn the secrets to his rapid improvement.

"Well I kind of inherited my parents' place when I was told who they were, so I have heaps of training room. It's where I've been the past month basically, improving my skills. Here hold on, I don't feel like walking the rest of the way."

"Ummm I don't know about th-" but Naruto had already grab both of them by the collars and flashed away.

xXx

"So your team passed then Kakashi, was it the Uchiha kid who did most of the work?" Asuma asked when Kakashi appeared in the office of the Hokage, only three Jounin were present as only three teams had passed; Teams 7, 8, and 9. Kurenai stood there expectantly as she waited for Kakashi to answer.

"Actually it was Naruto; he kind of invalidated the test."

"What? How do you invalidate the bell test?" Kurenai was curious as to what a genin could do to ruin the test.

"Apart from telling the other genin the point of the test before it starts," Kakashi explained, "which he didn't do, there is always getting both bells himself." Both Kurenai and Asuma burst out laughing.

"Good one Kakashi, but seriously how do you invalidate the test?" Asuma roared after his bout of laughter.

"He wasn't kidding, Asuma, Kurenai, come see for yourself," Hiruzen said as he showed them his crystal ball.

They both stood watching wide-eyed as the replay ended in seconds.

"What, but that's crazy! How does a genin move like that?"

"Hiraishin no Jutsu, if you hadn't worked it out already he is the son of Yondaime. I don't know how he learnt it but it's incredible," Kakashi said, "And if you think that's good we had a real fight afterwards, to test his mettle against me. I used my sharingan."

"And?" Kurenai and Asuma both enquired.

"If I hadn't used Kawarimi no Jutsu at the last second, at the very best I'd be in hospital, worst I'd be a stain on the ground. It might have turned out differently if the fight had started on my terms, but they started on his, and I didn't even have a chance to use a Jutsu, any of the techniques I might have been able to use that don't involve hand seals probably would have killed him. Show them Hokage-sama."

Kurenai and Asuma were both outright amazed at the fight a genin gave a high level jounin who was using sharingan.

"He hasn't even mastered the jutsu yet, but I can safely say that it would have been terrifying fighting the Yondaime. It didn't matter that I could see the kid, and see what he was doing; he was too quick for me to stop him. That and he knew what I was trying to do by running to the water. The kid is easily high chunin level now, with just those two techniques and his knowledge of how to use them, and he's probably got even more tricks up his sleeve, I mean he didn't even use shadow clones. Not to mention the power of that hit, I don't know how a kid his size hits that hard."

"He probably uses the same method Tsunade uses; chakra manipulation," Hiruzen offered from his position behind the desk, "if you look closely at the point of impact you can see a flash, that'd be a chakra burst."

"But didn't the academy say that his chakra control was horrible?" Asuma didn't know how someone could improve their chakra control so easily in just a month.

"You forget that chakra manipulation and control can be practiced and improved over time. And with the number of clones Naruto can create he has had the equivalent of all the time in the world to train over this past month," the Hokage added, as if settling the matter, "Either way it doesn't matter, he'll continue to improve in Team 7, maybe it'll even positively effect Sasuke now that there is someone his age that is his better."

They all nodded, knowing that Sasuke's current ideas of revenge were only going to ruin his life.

We can only hope Kakashi thought to himself as they were dismissed.

xXx

"If you feel like vomiting take it outside," was the first thing out of Naruto's mouth when they arrived back in his living room. Sasuke seemed relatively fine, if a little unsettled, but Sakura had to quickly excuse herself as she went outside to get some air.

"You okay Sakura-chan?"

After a couple of minutes she walked back inside looking much better, "Yeah I'm fine now, but man that felt weird Naruto,"

"So how did you get so powerful all of a sudden? Huh," Sasuke asked obnoxiously.

"Yeah Naruto, what'd you do?"

"I trained. It's as simple as that. I worked hard. Unfortunately it's not something you can emulate."

"What? We can't train, are you stupid dobe?"

"I wasn't finished yet teme, what I meant was that you can't train the way I did. I use shadow clones to train, which according to the Hokage require Jounin levels of chakra to create about 5-10 comfortably without putting the user in danger. Each shadow clone passes on its memories to me, the original, so whatever they learn, I learn. The thing is, I've had a condition since I was born that has given me ridiculous amounts of chakra. So I can create a lot more."

"How many more Naruto?" Sakura asked curiously.

"I make upwards of two hundred for training purposes." Naruto said casually.

"You learn two hundred times faster?" Sakura was shocked, that kind of learning rate was crazy, the things you could get done if you did things two hundred times faster was phenomenal.

"So that explains why I improved so much over such a short time. I've been getting pretty bad headaches sometimes though. But I asked Jiraiya and he said that that'd be because I'm taking in a lot of information all the time, so it's just mental stress."

"Wait, you know Jiraiya of the Sannin?" Sakura asked dumbstruck, that guy was famous!

"Oh yeah I forgot to tell you he is my god father, isn't that cool." Naruto replied with a smile on his face while rubbing the back of his head.

"This IS BULLSHIT! I train so hard all the time to get stronger, and then you find out you have a hot shot shinobi god father who's probably taught you awesome techniques and an ability to learn incredibly fast and over take me. I need to be the strongest to achieve my goal."

"Actually Sasuke," Naruto said with his voice rising, he was starting to get sick of his attitude, "Jiraiya has taught me one move so far. Everything else I've learnt by myself. Even the Hiraishin no Jutsu that you saw me using today, I learnt that by myself. OKAY! What's so important that you need to be better than everyone else huh? Because there is only one reason I'll accept."

"FINE! I NEED TO KILL MY BROTHER! I NEED TO AVENGE MY CLAN!" Sasuke screamed, they didn't understand, "YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE TO LOSE EVERYTHING!"

"No, I don't. But I know what it's like to have nothing since day one. To live alone in fear of your life with only one person who will bother talking to you at all. To hope that whenever I went out as a child I wasn't mugged or killed. To live alone of the streets for a time because that was what it took to survive. For my whole life people have just ignored that I even exist, and the ones who didn't generally were people trying to hurt or kill me! PEOPLE WOULD JUST PRETEND THAT THE POOR ORPHAN DIDN'T EXIST! DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD THAT WAS FOR ME HUH? Why do you think I acted out all the time? BECAUSE I WANTED PEOPLE TO JUST ACKNOWLEDGE MY EXISTENCE. But then I found out why people hated me and then I found out almost straight after that my father was responsible for it. I WAS ANGRY, I WAS HURT, but I forgave my father because it was the only thing he could do. After seeing this house, and my nursery, MY FUCKING NURSERY SASUKE, and seeing a happy photo of my family just before I was born, I KNEW EXACTLY WHAT I'D LOST, I LOST SO MUCH THE DAY I WAS BORN. But I didn't wallow in self-pity; I didn't become lost in grief. I became driven to be the best that I can be in order to make my parents proud. To become a shinobi that the village will admire, and become strong so I can protect this village so what happened to my family won't happen to anybody elses!"

Sakura was standing near the door, tears falling down her face as she listened to Naruto's story, imagining all the times that she had been mean to him in the academy. She felt horrible, sick to her stomach that she was partly responsible for Naruto's misery.

Sasuke was taken aback that someone had had it as rough, or in Naruto's case rougher than he had, although Sasuke would never admit it.

"Don't let grief and rage consume you Sasuke, do you think your parents would want you to seek revenge if it meant sacrificing yourself?"

"Tch," Was all Sasuke could say in response as he got up and walked to the door.

"Just what I thought," Naruto said to his back, "Anyway, when you want to learn something come around and I'll try and teach you what I can, you are still in my team," he continued, his voice softening.

"Whatever," and with that he was gone.

Sakura wasn't quite sure what to do. Did she follow Sasuke out, or stay with Naruto for now, before she could come to a decision, Naruto had come to one for her, "Come on, let's get some training done before the day is up shall we?" He said with a smile as he wiped the tears out of his eyes.

"Is all of what you said true Naruto?" Sakura asked as they walked outside to a training field.

"Every word of it, I had no reason to lie to Sasuke. Lying isn't going to turn him off the path he's on. Anyone could see that."

"Well can I ask why it is people hate you then?" She asked nervously, not sure how to tread across what she though was thin ice. As annoying as Naruto was in the academy, she didn't know about why he was the way he was, and now he seemed to be a lot more tolerable. He was even a teammate, a strong teammate who was offering help. She couldn't not do the same for him if there was some way for her to help.

"I suppose you can, being on my team and all, but I'd like you to keep it a secret. I'm pretty sure our year doesn't know about it, but all the old people do. Do you know what the Kyuubi is?" she nodded, "Well it wasn't destroyed, because it can't be destroyed. On the night of the attack twelve years ago, my father had to seal it inside of me in order to save the village. So it's right here, in my belly. It's the reason I have such a large amount of chakra. And the reason people hate me. They don't see me when they look at me; they just see the killer fox that attacked the village." Sighing he turned and created a number of clones that ran off and began training.

That was horrible. Sakura couldn't believe that Naruto had had to live with such a burden and so much resentment for something he had no control over. It would have driven her insane if she was in his position. She was seeing the real Naruto today. The ninja that wouldn't quit no matter what, the ninja that would achieve his dream of becoming a great ninja that could protect those he loved or die trying. Not the obnoxious loud mouthed orange ninja façade, but the true Naruto.

"I'm so sorry Naruto-kun," she said as she pulled him into an unexpected hug. Well this is nice. He thought as he looked down at the top of her head.

"It's okay Sakura-chan you had nothing to do with it, you didn't even know," he smiled down at her.

"But I was so mean to you; I can't believe you've had to deal with so much."

"Like I said, it's okay. I forgive you. It's nice to hear that you are sorry, but really I'm okay, now let's get to training."

Naruto created a massive number of clones once again and had them get to work at training a great number of things. He then spent the rest of the afternoon teaching Sakura how to wall walk. She got it almost straight away. Apparently she had expert chakra control due to the small amount of chakra she had. He told her she'd have to work on improving that though if she was to get stronger; explaining that the chakra coils in the body can be expanded by using chakra more often.

When she was adequate at walking on the trees, he got her to run up and down the trees to try giving her mild chakra exhaustion. When that wasn't working fast enough he decided that some light sparring while hanging upside down would be good training.

By dinner they were about both ready to hit the hay, well Sakura was, Naruto could have kept training, but neither of them had eaten. So Naruto cooked up some home-made pork ramen, took her by the hand and flashed away.

"Why do you have a Hiraishin Kunai up here Naruto?" They were standing at the top of the Hokage monument look out over the village?

"Sometimes when I'm taking a break I like to sit up here and look out over the village, knowing that one day I'll be their protector."

They spent the evening sitting atop the monument looking out over Konoha, eating and talking about what lay ahead, and what he was going to get her to train on next.

"Thanks for today Naruto-kun, it was great to actually learn something new since academy and you're a pretty good teacher. You make some mean ramen too." She said with a smile before she rushed home, worried about getting scolded by her parents.

Apart from his disturbing encounter with Sasuke Naruto could say he had a pretty great day just training with Sakura, even if she did get a little grumpy when she was having trouble sticking to the tree and paying attention to fighting him.

He went to sleep with a smile on his face that night. Things in Konoha might finally start going his way.

xXx

Over the next couple of months, Team 7 completed a variety of D rank missions, the most annoying of which would have been the retrieval of a maniacal cat by the name of Tora had Naruto not been able to use Hiraishin no Jutsu (Flying Thunder God Technique). Whenever they weren't doing missions Sakura and Naruto were training, and they grew quite close over time. Naruto got the feeling that Sakura was still madly in love with Sasuke, but it was still nice to have another friend around.

They only ever saw Sasuke during missions and any time there was team training, and he would disappear before Sakura even had a chance try and track him down and spend time with him. After a few repeated attempts at finding him she gave up and decided that she'd just have to spend as much time as she could with him on missions.

She was improving rapidly now that she had Naruto to teach her. Kakashi really didn't do much with regards to teaching them techniques. Hell, he didn't even teach them much at all. He was more like their chaperone most of the time, just making sure they didn't get in trouble during a mission and keeping them in line.

Sakura had mastered tree and water walking almost straight away. Naruto then started working on improving her taijutsu, and chakra stores. This proved more difficult, but it paid off for her when Naruto taught her how to use chakra to add more power to her punches. He figured it didn't require excessive amounts of chakra, but still required precise chakra control, so it was the perfect way to give her a strength boost.

Sakura was grateful for all the help she was receiving from Naruto. And it wasn't like she was hindering his progress. By the end of the first month of missions Naruto had increased the weights on his clothing to 90kg, within two months they were at 120kg, almost twice his body weight.

He kept trying to increase his speed, trying to do justice to the legacy of the Yellow Flash. He was still learning as he trained Sakura, and this was displayed by his increasing mastery of fuuinjutsu. He was even working on elemental chakra, after having found from Jiraiya and the use of a special piece of paper that his affinity was wind. By the end of the two months he'd already worked out how to extend his blade through wind chakra manipulation, and had learnt his share of wind ninjutsu to complement his skills.

But it wasn't just Sakura and himself that were improving. After training with Sakura for the first time he made an effort to go and find the other rookie genin teams to offer them a bit of training if they wanted it. At first they were doubtful but decided that they would at the insistence of their jounin sensei, who really knew how strong Naruto had become. They wouldn't complain if someone was helping them improve their teams in their spare time. They weren't let down by the knowledge that Naruto had of the ninja arts, and each of the genin started showing marked improvements now that he was helping them along.

Naruto was also finding fuuinjutsu to be an extremely powerful art, and wondered why no one studied it. Jiraiya was the one to answer that question, explaining that there were very few people alive that could do great fuuinjutsu, and fewer people who taught it. It was a rare and powerful ability that he explained the Uzumaki clan were wiped out for having.

As he progressed in his studies he realised he could apply seals to his own body that would do a variety of things, even the seal for the Hiraishin no Jutsu (Flying Thunder God Technique). Naruto had also developed a seal that used a space time manipulation to transport a chakra burst to a 'hub' seal, whenever chakra was run through it; mainly the one that he now had on the middle of his forearm. Every one of the rookie genin aside from Sasuke now had two seals in the middle of the inside of their forearms.

Naruto had come to them with an idea and none of them had any objections. One of the seals was the chakra burst seal, the other was the Hiraishin seal. Now whenever any of them were in trouble they only needed to channel chakra into the seal to notify Naruto that they needed him. He could then use to Hiraishin no Jutsu (Flying Thunder God Technique) to teleport straight to their location.

He also used a failsafe that he engineered from his father's barrier seal. It stopped the seal from sending the burst of chakra if the chakra channelled through it wasn't the same as the person who the seal was applied to; stopping an ambush for him if they were captured.

The first time that everyone had arrived at his clan compound for training they were sceptical about what they could be taught by the supposed dead last of the academy. They'd only come because their sensei had recommended it. The six genin stood there as Naruto walked onto the training ground to greet them. Sakura had been training earlier that morning and stood looking confidently at her academy friends.

xXx Flashback xXx

She didn't like how Naruto had started giving training to everyone; she might have been a touch jealous that she wasn't the only one getting special treatment now, but she did understand why he wanted to do it. They were all part of the same village, fighting to protect everyone and improve Konoha's standing.

"So why did our sensei say we come and train here with you whenever we had free time huh? What's so special about you Naruto? I could beat you easy!" Kiba said obnoxiously from the line-up, Akamaru barking to reinforce his statement. Naruto had visited each team around a month ago, but this was the first time any of the six genin had visited at all, he guessed they'd been busy.

"I wouldn't be so sure Kiba, there's something different about him now, look even the way Sakura's acting around him has changed." Shikamaru said in response, a thoughtful look plastered on his face.

Akamaru was still barking defiantly, while the rest stood and watched as Naruto walked up to an upright log about three feet in diameter that he had his clones put into the training ground the night before. About eight feet of it was sticking out of the ground.

"Kiba, come up to this and punch it as hard as you can for me will you?" Naruto challenged.

"Uhhh, okay, I'll break that thing like the toothpick it is!" His false bravado ringing through the air as he walked over to the log. He stood composing himself before charging at it and launching what looked to be his strongest punch. His fist collided with it only for a cracking sound to be heard.

"OH KAMI, I THINK I ALMOST BROKE MY HAND." Screaming as Naruto came over to inspect the damage.

"Well that'd be Log 1 – Kiba 0, never underestimate the log Kiba. And it looks like you only dislocated a finger. Give me your hand," He said grabbing Kiba's hand quickly before the boy could object and popping the finger back in.

"KAMI, THAT HURT ALMOST AS MUCH," All the other genin could do was hang their heads in shame and face-palm at the stupidity of their friend.

"So what was the point of that demonstration Naruto; to show how dumb Kiba is?" Shika queried, getting a growl from both Kiba and Akamaru.

"I wasn't finished yet smarty pants, Sakura, please demonstrate the correct technique to breaking a log."

"Bahahahaha good one Naruto, how is Sakura able to do it if I couldn't, that thing is as solid as a rock," by now the other genin thought Naruto was playing a joke, and started laughing, albeit not nearly as confidently as Kiba, with Hinata just looking shyly at Naruto.

That was until Sakura walked straight up to the log and from a standing position punched it so hard that her fist went a foot into the front side and a cloud of splinters exploded from the back as the top of the log fell backwards onto the ground."

"Very well done Sakura-chan. That, my friends, is how you correctly break a log. Although something as majestic as a log will never be kept down for long," they would have looked at him strangely if they weren't busy trying to pick their jaws up off the ground, "Now who would like to start training," and with that they all raised their hands, still dumbstruck at what Sakura had been able to do.

xXx End Flashback xXx

Since then there was rarely a time when all of teams 8 and 9 were there together, mostly it was one or two people showing up whenever they weren't busy with missions, family matters, or team training. Naruto thought it was great to finally have not only the respect of the other genin but also their friendship, as they all grew closer as a group over time. Even Hinata started coming out of her shell a little bit as Naruto continued to train her. She still was a little bit funny, blushing all the time, but she no longer went completely red in the face when he touched her arm or gave her a pat on the back, and she'd finally gotten used to him complimenting her.

Jiraiya stopped in every now and again to check on Naruto's progress and was still amazed at what the kid was able to do, not that he'd ever tell him. Whenever Jiraiya visited he would train him to get better with the toad summons, and they would occasionally do battle. He even showed him how to use a toads summon to create a stronger attack, by combining two jutsu.

When the time came for their first C rank mission Naruto and Sakura were ready. Naruto couldn't comment on Sasuke's progress though as he'd never seen much from him during team trainings and their D rank missions. But the boy had been looking even more unsettled than usual since his argument with Naruto.

As Kakashi and his team exited the village of Konoha with a bridge builder named Tazuna, he could only hope that they were ready for anything.

Anyway like I said, don't expect another update until at least the weekend, silly assignment -.- And if you enjoy this so far review, tell me what you like/dislike/what you think should happen. Hey I might even listen to some suggestions if they're good. Just a heads up, Haku will be a chick.