The Corps

by Zaln

Naruto isn't a jinchuuriki. His sister is. Naruto's just a troublemaking young boy with lots of issues. So when in a fit of rage his father signs him away to the Reserve Corps, it looks like his shinobi career is all but finished...if only. Anko/Naru/Ino

3. Welcome To Hell Pt 2

It's here. It's finally here. Just a quick note. This will probably be the only chapter that doesn't include any canon characters and/or Natsumi. There's a lot of OC's, but they're just for the plot. Don't worry, I know who we all want to see.

NOTE: FF dot NET IS FUCKING UP MY FORMATTING! And also deleting words straight out of the fic. Some of it's me, of course, but since I have a tendency to do that I quadruple proof read my fics. Some stuff will still slip through, but there are sentences that I fucking REMEMBER fixing on my word processor. Things like double or missing words show up with a big red line under it on google docs and it's kinda hard to miss so, yea...try not to judge me as too noobish for that shit. I'll be continueing to re fix stuff as I see it.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"DOWN!"

"Four hundred forty eight, sir!"

"DOWN!"

"Four hundred forty nine, sir!"

"DOWN!"

"Four hundred and fifty, sir!"

The cadets dropped to the ground, exhausted from their exercises that only seemed to get more hellish as the weeks went by. Naruto was just as exhausted as the other trainees, but he pushed himself up off the ground and onto to his feet, coming to attention even as his chest heaved and his muscles screamed in protest. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Odo doing the same. The other soon-to-be-ninjas slowly gathered themselves off the ground, groaning as they got up from the earth.

Takashi did not give them a moment's rest.

"Line up at the target range, now!" he spat with all the fire of a volcano.

Naruto was still out of breath, but he forced himself into a jog towards the well used range that was assembled at the other side of the field. Not to be outdone, his rival also pushed himself into a jog, though he lagged a bit behind Naruto. They reached the range before most of their peers were even moving, standing at attention as they waited for the rest of the trainees to catch up.

"Hurry up!" Takashi all but roared, forcing even the most tired of the cadets up off the ground and into a run. "Last five to the range owe me one hundred pushups!" This got all of them going much faster, and the last few to arrive were singled out and made to pay their debts to Takashi in physical punishment. A week ago, Naruto would most likely have been among them...but things had changed since then.

With Takashi's current bout of sadism sated, he began to walk along the range as cadets lined up in front of their stations. Each spot contained a miniature booth with a set of kunai and shuriken. Fifty feet down range was a target, a cut out silhouette of a human body, with bulls eyes painted on all of the vital spots.

They had been doing this everyday, three hours a day, for a week now after their PT, or physical training. Back in the Academy, Naruto would have been clawing his eyes out in boredom. Now, after three full weeks of nothing but PT day in, day out, it was almost heaven to be doing anything other than push ups, sit ups, squats, running, and the myriad of other torturous exercises they had been subjected to; it was almost like a vacation. Still, Naruto stayed focused, palming a kunai as he waited for Takashi to give them the signal to begin. Others might have taken this time to slack off a bit, but he remembered the promise he had made to himself the first time he had fought with Takashi.

The jounin barked out their orders in military speak, as always. "You are clear to engage your targets in three, two, one, go!"

In a flash, the kunai was released from Naruto's hand, zipping down range and imbedding itself in the cut out one ring outside the bullseye located where the heart would be. "Shit," Naruto swore to himself. That wouldn't be considered a kill shot on a real person. It might put them out of commission, but chances are an enemy would be able to fight through it with their life on the line.

"Didn't they teach you anything at the Academy Namikaze? Keep your wrist in line with the target!" Takashi's voice interrupted his train of thought. Naruto bristled a bit, but barked out a loud, if a bit clipped, "Yes sir!" Before he would have been offended at the insinuation of his incompetence, but now he took in a stride, determined not to let his pride get in the way of becoming a better ninja. Still, he couldn't wait for the day when he was good enough to get Takashi back for all the insults and humiliation.

That day was a long ways away.

Despite that, he could see himself getting better as Basic Training progressed. Now that he had decided to give his all, little by little he was becoming stronger, faster, and more focused. It showed through as he began to pull away from his peers through sheer effort alone. Only Odo, who had also been singled out by Takashi, was keeping up with him. This had not done him any favors in terms of his standing amongst his peers. In fact, if anything they ostracized him more for what to them seemed to be an attempt to show them up. Surprisingly, Odo had stopped trying to instigate any real problems with him, but their relationship was anything but friendly. Both boys could often been seen glaring at each other and posturing threateningly behind Takashi's back. All in all life still sucked in the Reserves, but Naruto was determined to make the most of it.

xXxXx

Naruto backpedaled desperately, hoping to escape the unstoppable force that was currently coming at him with violent intentions. He ducked a flurry of blows, his short stature helping him to avoid the punches from his larger opponent. At least for a second, until he caught a knee strike right in the face for his efforts. Naruto's head snapped back, stars exploding in his vision as he wobbled unsteadily on his feet before falling backwards onto his rear end. The young Namikaze blinked his eyes, trying to get them to refocus. It took a few seconds, but he finally managed to get his vision to stop swimming.

Takashi watched his youngest trainee, shaking his head and snorting in derision. "Is that what you call putting up a fight? How many times do I have to tell you, you should be attempting to counter even when you are retreating. Letting an enemy completely dictate the engagement will only end in defeat."

Naruto had learned early on in his session with his instructor/tormentor that wise-ass remarks would only land him in a world of pain, so a quick "Yes sir," was Naruto's only answer to Takashi's critique. His voice came out slightly nasally, due to the red liquid that was starting to drip out of his nose. He knew Takashi had held back, otherwise he would have had his face caved in instead of just a bloody nose.

"Well, what are you waiting for then? Get up! Do you think your opponent is going to wait for you to recover? Maybe he'll just stab himself in the throat with a kunai, too."

The blonde scowled at this but gave no reply, opting instead to sniff the blood back into his nose and swallow it down before once again taking up his stance. It was different from what was taught at the Academy, with no katas to be found anywhere, just quick and brutal combos that Takashi had him practice relentlessly. Right before the jounin beat the snot out of him, of course. Sometimes the older man waited for Naruto to attack, before quickly showing in the futility of his actions.

Today was not one of those days.

As soon as Naruto was up and standing, Takashi once again advanced on the blond. The boy stood his ground, eyes narrowed as he watched the seasoned ninja stalk towards him like a predator stalking its prey. When the jounin was about seven steps away, he flashed.

But Naruto was ready.

In fact, he had expected such a move. Takashi often attempted to overwhelm him by using superior speed. When they had first started Naruto had been helpless against it, but now he was beginning to adjust. At least, enough to anticipate a few moves before he got creamed.

The eleven year old hopped back, batting down a straight punch that would have surely KO'd him with an even parry. He dipped the left hook, only to see a spinning back elbow screaming towards his face as he came up. 'Shit!' With only a split second to react, Naruto's mind had no time to come up with a solution. So his body did it for back to avoid the elbow strike by mere inches, the young Namikaze let his lead foot flash out, catching the back of his opponent's knee in a move that surprised both combatants. Takashi's leg buckled, and the jounin let out a grunt of surprise as he was forced down to one knee. Surprised as he was by his own actions, Naruto still kept the presence of mind to press his advantage. Without pausing for a moment the blond sent a flurry of punches at the older man's face which was for once level with him.

Takashi was not a jounin for nothing however. As soon as his knee touched the ground the rest of his body followed, smoothly rolling under Naruto's assault while his own leg trailed behind him, easily sweeping Naruto's feet from under him. The eleven year old was caught completely flat-footed. His back hit the ground and the all too familiar feeling of air leaving his lungs accompanied it.

"Oof".

Reflexively he rolled onto his stomach, intending to push himself back onto his feet. It proved to be a mistake. The moment he showed his back was the moment Takashi was
on it. In a split second Naruto found an arm snaked under his chin and another pressed against the back of his head letting him know instantly he was in serious trouble. The
jounin swiftly rose to his feet, bringing his opponent into a standing guillotine. Naruto choked, kicking and squirming in an attempt to breathe as both gravity and his sensei's
arms worked to keep him from doing exactly that. It was a futile gesture, because soon Naruto felt the burning in his chest become unbearable. His muscles started to lose their strength, and he could see grey creeping in around the edge of his vision. Just when he felt his consciousness start to slip away from him, the vice like grip released
him, and he dropped to the ground in a fit wheezing and coughing as his hands immediately went to his throat.

Takashi stepped back, staring at the shaking, red faced mess of a cadet hacking up a lung in front of him with apathy that bordered on contempt. Still, he waited patiently until his leader's son finally stopped coughing, though the boy still remained on his hands and knees. The instructor casually cleared his throat, and Naruto finally raised his eyes to stare the jounin in the face. Takashi wasted not even a moment.

"Would you mind telling me just what the fuck was that?"

Naruto said nothing, looking back at the ground while trying to get his breath under control. Finally he spoke. "I was...I was just, trying to get back...up" he gasped out.

Takashi wasn't one for excuses. "Haven't you learned anything Namikaze? Never, ever, present your back to your enemy!" His tone was less mocking and more serious. Dead serious.

Naruto was quiet again. For a moment he wanted to point out that if they had been using kunai, he would have been able to stab Takashi in the arms or the sides to escape, but he also knew that if they had been using kunai Takashi wouldn't have grabbed him. The jounin would have stabbed him in the back of the neck, or the kidneys, or any one of his numerous vital spots he had left exposed.

Naruto didn't look up as Takashi spoke again, this time allowing his contempt to seep through. "Get up. As far as I'm concerned you're dead. We won't be sparring tomorrow, I'll let you know when I decide to acknowledge that you're still breathing".

Naruto didn't move as he heard his instructor walk away from him. He remained on his hands and knees, eyes fixed unseeingly at the ground for some time. Suddenly, he raised his fist and smashed it into the ground as anger overwhelmed him. "Fuck!" he screamed, punching the ground over and over. "Fuck, shit, shit, fuck, DAMNIT!" He collapsed forward, his bandanna covered forehead resting on the cold dirt beneath it. He had been trying so hard to get better, striving, for once, to become a competent ninja instead of just a failure. But despite all the blood, sweat, and tears he had spilled in the past few weeks, he felt farther from his goal then ever.

xXxXx

Six weeks into the program and the game had changed once again. Having sufficiently passed the conditioning and accuracy portions of their training, the Reserve recruits were finally starting in on their jutsu training. Even Naruto's vow to become a true professional couldn't stop him from literally bouncing with excitement. The whole
barracks was alight the night before once they had found out their training was moving on to the next stage. Whispered conversations could be heard long after lights out, where young soon-to-be ninjas fantasized about the awesome ninjutsu techniques they would be learning come the morning. Others quietly voiced their worries about the
taijutsu part of the training. Naruto had no fear concerning that, in fact, he was actually quite eager to show off his skills. He knew because of his 'training' with Takashi he was most likely light-years ahead of the majority of the Reserve trainees. Naruto had been mortified after the sparring session where he had been choked out, but Takashi had apparently just wanted to teach him a lesson. They had resumed practice two days later, and the blond trainee had more than tripled his effort. The only one he would have to worry about was Odo, because he had also been on the receiving end of their commanding officer's brutal taijutsu regime. Despite that, the fighter in Naruto was actually anticipating throwing down with the huge boy. What had been started in the cafeteria seemingly so long ago had never been resolved, and both boys knew they had a score to settle.

'Feh, I'll kick that bastard's ass any day of the week,' the blond thought to himself.

So, bright and early at 0500 hours the Reserve hopefuls found themselves at the training field on the Monday of the seventh week. For the first time since the very beginning of their training, every one of the recruits were wide awake enthusiastically waiting in excitement. Basic Training was exactly three months long, so it was a huge milestone for all of them. Naruto wanted to be able to say it had passed faster than he thought it would, but that would be a lie. Every day was full of grueling physical exertion and monotonous drudgery.

Training twelve hours a day, with little variation in their daily routine was enough to wear anyone down, and while Naruto desperately wanted to prove Takashi and everyone else wrong about his chances of becoming a great, or at least damn good shinobi, he still found himself reminiscing about the days when he would cut class and scramble around the streets of Konoha getting into trouble. Sometimes he felt his resolve weaken, and he bitterly cursed his father and his mother and his sister for having a perfect little happy life that he obviously didn't fit into. But despite his bursts of resentment and self-pity, deep down he knew it was his own actions that had landed him where he was. It didn't matter in the end. Whether he liked it or not the fact was that he was stuck in the Reserves, there was no backing out now, so every morning he sucked it up and did his best to ignore the words of both his peers and his jounin instructor. Well, he ignored his fellow trainees at least. The jounin's remarks, while usually laced with mocking derision, often held nuggets of useful information. Naruto did his best to sort out the what he could use from what was just verbal abuse without rising to the bait. In the past six weeks, he felt as if he had learned more about humility than he had in his whole life.

Their instructor paced back in forth in front of the first row, as he often did, sizing them up with an unreadable expression on his face. Finally he stopped, coming to rest front and center as a sadistic grin made its way onto his face. Instantly Naruto had a premonition that no one was going to like what came out of the jounin's mouth.

"Alright you maggots, today is the day when you finally begin your training in the proper ninja arts. I'm sure many of you are curious about what you are going to be learning. No doubt hoping for the chance to acquire some powerful ninjutsus that Konoha is famous for. And that's what would be happening, if you were on an elite team with a jounin sensei". The feeling was growing stronger, but Naruto still did not why he felt a knot settling in the pit of his stomach. Takashi continued on. "Seeing as I don't have the time nor the inclination to teach every one of you brats new techniques, we will be working with what you already know".

The Namikaze couldn't keep his jaw from dropping in horror as comprehension dawned on him. 'No...no no no no no! Please don't be what I think it is'. His eyes darted to the side, catching the looks on the faces of his fellow trainees, and he could see from their faces that they were thinking the same thing as him. Takashi seemed to know it too, because his smile only got wider.

"That's right! For the next two weeks we will be working on your Henge, Bunshin, and Kawarimi jutsus!"

'E-ranks!' Naruto's inner voice shouted in despair, 'We're working on fucking E-ranks!'
The urge to voice his opinions out loud bubbled within his throat, and he fought desperately to keep it contained. Luckily, someone else did it for him.

"But why? We already know these stupid techniques! We need real jutsus, not weak Academy techniques!"

Takashi immediately zeroed in on the boy who spoke out. "Morimoto, front and center now!"

The pale, skinny boy with black and hair and unremarkable features opened his mouth to protest, albeit meekly. "But sir-"

"I said now, Morimoto!"

The boy whose family name was Morimoto let out a pained "Yes sir" before jogging his way to the front of the group. Takashi waited for the boy to stop in front of him before addressing him calmly.

"Are you the instructor here, Morimoto?"

"No sir." Now that he had been singled out, the black headed preteen looked like he was trying to shrink into himself.

"Do you hold the rank of jounin, Morimoto?"

"No sir."

"Are you a chuunin then, Morimoto?"

"No sir" his voice was getting quieter with each response.

"Oh? Well, tell me then, are you even a genin, Morimoto?"

The boy's voice was almost a whisper now. "No sir".

Takashi's voice had been calm and even, but now he all but roared at the boy who had dared to interrupt him. "THEN DON'T PRESUME TO QUESTION ME ABOUT WHAT I CHOOSE TO TEACH MY TRAINEES! Now drop and give me three hundred!"

Morimoto didn't hesitate. "Yes sir!"

Naruto winced as he watched the boy get 'smoked' as it was called in Reserve lingo. Three hundred didn't sound like a lot, with how many pushups they had been doing everyday, but considering the fact that they had already done five hundred that morning, there was no way the boy would be able to finish all three hundred. Already his arms were shaking and he couldn't have done more than fifty. Naruto already knew what would happen as he had been smoked more than anyone else. If this Morimoto kid couldn't complete all three hundred, which he couldn't, then he would be forced to do even more PT for the rest of the day. Then in the morning he would be too sore to complete their morning conditioning and he would get smoked again for failing to do so. The cycle would repeat until Takashi took pity on him, which could be the next day or the next week. The only saving grace was that Takashi would lay off for awhile after, giving offender time to heal before picking on them again. As long as they kept their mouth shut and didn't do anything stupid, of course. Needless to say, they had all learned to just shut up and do whatever it was they were told.

The youngest cadet looked back at their instructor as he spoke up again. "Does anyone else have something to say about my training?"

The training field was dead quiet. Only the sounds of birds chirping and Morimoto's pained gasps could be heard.

Takashi snorted. "Didn't think so. These jutsu might be considered weak because of their ranking, but any jutsu can be deadly in the right hands. Konoha is not in the practice of wasting time, you wouldn't have had to learn them if they were of no use. And if you have a problem with it, you should have thought about that before you failed your genin tests".

Naruto wanted to point out that he thought having to learn about the Shodaime's love of dogs and aversion to anything feline was pretty useless, and that he had never even taken the genin test, but he kept quiet. The rest of the group seemed to agree that it was their best bet, too.

The jounin continued on. "Alright brats, spread out! You'll be starting with the Henge first. By the time we're done I expect you all to be able to do each of these techniques flawlessly".

A groan escaped Naruto's lips before he could help himself, but it was quiet enough that Takashi either hadn't heard it or chose not acknowledge it. He had only started learning the Henge, Kawarimi, and Bunshin towards the end of the previous year, and he had cut class so often that he could barely perform them with any sort of consistency. 'This is going to suck', he grumbled to himself as he walked further out into the field.

xXxXx

Sometimes Naruto really hated being right. While the others had already graduated from the Academy and simply had to work on completely perfecting the techniques, Naruto was just trying to get up to speed. The disadvantage of being assigned to the Reserve Corps. early had come back to bite him in the ass. Again. And like clockwork, Takashi had once again begun to single him out.

By now he was getting smoked daily. However, it wasn't just the usual PT exercises. Instead, Takashi would have him do the techniques over and over again without a moments rest in between. Every flaw was punished by either exercises or an attack without warning. Naruto spent his days constantly in motion, flying through handseals while dodging the jounin's surprise attacks and dropping to the ground to push the dirt before popping back up and immediately spitting out jutsus. And it was absolutely grueling.

Naruto had thought he knew what it was like to reach his limits. The obscene amount of physical training he had endured in the past weeks were proof. Yet he was beginning to realize that he was once again wrong in his assumptions. He had noticed early on that he recovered quicker than others even, with all the extra conditioning he was subjected to. He had come to the conclusion that it must have had something to do with his Uzumaki heritage. His parents had explained to him and Natsumi about their history, once. At the time Naruto was young and didn't really care about it much, but he could vaguely remember his mother saying something about the Uzumaki's having unusually high stamina and chakra reserves. He also remember her talking about a bloodline limit, only to go on to say it only manifested in the Uzumaki females. He had been too angry to listen to anything after that. It seemed so unfair. Natsumi had the Kyuubi and a potential Kekkei Genkai, while he was just shit out of luck.

That being said, he had still inherited high stamina and relatively large chakra reserves. Nowhere near as large as his sister's, who was rumored to have reserves surpassing jounin levels even though she was still in the Academy, but large nonetheless. So it didn't take long after beginning Takashi's version of jutsu practice to realize that he had been subconsciously using his chakra to boost his stamina. Now, when he was spitting out jutsu so fast he could barely get the names out of his mouth, he could feel his reserves draining like a river dam with a gaping hole punched into it.

A slap to the side of his head brought him back to earth. "Keep going Namikaze! Did I say you could stop?"

Naruto grunted, breathing hard with sweat soaking every inch of his fatigues as he attempted to create another three Bunshins with what littles scraps of chakra he had left. They popped into existence with a burst of smoke, and he was relieved to see that they were how they were supposed to be. That is, until smoke cleared and the last sickly looking Bunshin came into view from its slumped over position on the ground.

"Hmph, how disappointing. Looks like you'll be spending your meal time with me again, Namikaze."

Not for the first time, Naruto really, really felt like crying.

xXxXx

The day they had all been waiting for was finally here. Or at least, it was the day Naruto had been waiting for. Others had been dreading it, their nervous ticks and shuffling feat betrayed their anxiety at their coming test. Today was the day of the taijutsu exams, and Naruto was just spoiling for a fight. Even before Basic, Naruto had a been a scrapper, but back then he had lost just as many fights as he won. Now, after two months of being brutalized by Takashi with only four successfully landed blows to his name, the blond was itching to lay the smack down on someone his own age. Or much closer to his own age, at least.

It didn't help that even though the recruits had been working on taijutsu and ninjutsu for the past few weeks, the grizzled jounin had not once allowed him to spar with his peers, instead pulling him aside to deal with him personally. To add insult to injury, his instructor didn't hold back half as much in front of the others as he did during their after hours spars, putting Naruto down so hard and so fast that he often couldn't participate afterwards. It got to the point where even the base's medic-nin had spoken up about it. Takashi had kindly told him to "Shut his mouth and do his goddamn job", to which medic had responded with an oh so familiar "Yes sir."

The jounin barked out instructions and they all followed him to the area where the test would be held without a moment's hesitation, but Naruto's thoughts were still focused on what he had experienced in the past two weeks.

His daily public beat downs had done nothing to help his reputation among his fellow ninjas-in-training. Already feeling like he was trying to show them up with his improved performance, they took great pleasure in watching Takashi beat the tar out of him. He heard their snickers, a few had even commented that he must suck so bad that he needed remedial 'lessons'.

"We'll see what they say about that when I break my remedial foot off in their ass", the boy grumbled to himself. He remembered when his patience had reached the boiling point and he had finally voiced his opinion out loud.

"Why the hell won't you let me spar with them? I could beat all those bastards easy, believe it! But you won't even let me get a chance! It not fair!" he screamed at the man, his emotions finally coming to a head as they readied for another after hour's sparring session.

The jounin just looked at him, his face unimpressed. He sighed, before replying to the angry preteen before him. "Deception is the foundation of the way of the ninja."

"What?", Naruto shot back, his face showing his confusion. "What the hell is that supposed to mea-" His question was cut off as Takashi charged him, and soon he had to worry about the much more immediate concern of keeping his face from being smashed in.

The jounin barked out instructions and they all followed him to the area where the test would be held without a moment's hesitation.

Naruto hadn't understood what the man was implying at the time. But now, as his future opponents sized him up, he was beginning to understand. The boy in front of him was big, not as big as Odo but large enough that he stood a head and a half above the young Namikaze. Naruto took in his opponent's appearance briefly, noting an impressive build underneath the Reserve fatigues, searching the boys narrow face that was crowned by brown hair covered with the same black bandana he himself was wearing. Brown eyes stared back at him with contempt, and Naruto could tell by the look in his eyes that the boy expected an easy victory.

They stood in the middle of the field, surrounded by the other trainees who keeled in the traditional seiza posture forming the shape of a square, creating the perimeter for the ring area where the fights would take place. Takashi stood between the two combatants, each ten feet apart, looking down at them with hard eyes. This was the first fight of the entire exam.

Naruto had, of course, seen the boy around though he had never spoken to him. This wasn't surprising as the eleven year old hadn't said more than a few words to anyone besides Takashi during the previous six weeks of Basic Training. "You're on my bunk" or "Takashi wants to see you" was the extent of his social interaction with his peers. The reason was simple: they didn't like him so he didn't like them. It had made an already hard experience down right miserable, but Naruto consoled himself by constantly reminding himself he wasn't there to make friends, he was there to get stronger. He racked his brain, trying match a name to the face. 'It's Fukodo or something, I think'. His musings were interrupted as the other boy addressed him.

"You should just give up now. Everyone knows you're going down, Namikaze" he said with a confident smirk painted across his face.

Naruto was not phased by the pitiful taunt. He had been hanging out with street rats since he was eight, mostly just to spite his parents, and he had become an expert in the fine art and science of trash talk. This kid had no idea who he was baiting. "Really? That's funny," Naruto said, his face a mask of obviously feigned confusion, "Because I don't see your mother anywhere around here". His opponent's eyes widened as at the Hokage's son's retort, though he was obviously still confused about what was being insinuated. Naruto inwardly smirked as he prepared to deliver the killing blow. "Wait!" he blurted, shock plastering his features so well that it might as well have been genuine. "You mean everyone knows about us? Damn, it was supposed be a secret. Then again, she is a bit of a screamer, if you know what I mean." He wiggled his eyebrows as his mouth split into a shit-eating grin.

Even though the other trainees may not have liked him, snickers and muffled guffaws could be heard echoing across the makeshift arena. The brown haired boy's face flushed, and he clenched his fists, shaking in near apoplectic rage as he realized just who Naruto was implying he was going down on. The blond warily glanced towards Takashi, half expecting to get smoked on the spot, but the man's countenance didn't change even a little and he knew why. Taunting your opponent was a time-honoured practice among ninja, it was damn near tradition at this point. The jounin's face was blank and unreadable, but Naruto would bet his inheritance that inside his head Takashi was laughing his ass off.

"Namikaze vs. Fukuda", their instructor said, his voice hard and even as he announced the fighters. Most of the trainees watched on in strict silence at this point, but a few saw fit to call out quietly. Naruto clenched his teeth as mutterings of "Kick his ass, Seichi!" and "Show that little prick who's boss!" reached his ears. He wasn't surprised when for the second time Takashi said nothing, simply maintaining his cool gaze from his spot between him and the other boy. He looked over at Naruto and spoke again in complete seriousness. His voice was flat, the ever present mocking tone curiously absent.

"Namikaze, are you ready?"

Naruto replied with a sharp nod, eyes never leaving his opponent just as he had been taught. Takashi turned his gaze towards the other boy whose first name Naruto assumed was Seichi.

"Fukuda, are you ready?"

"Hai," Seichi ground out, now glaring daggers at the blond.

Takashi took a step back, before raising his hand and bringing it down in a swift chop. "Hajime!"

Seichi blasted off the spot he had been standing on so hard that clumps of dirt were flung into the air. He zeroed in on Naruto fast, so fast that the blond's eyes widened...for show. Seichi was damn fast for Academy graduate, and many of the other trainees would likely have been taken off guard. But Naruto had been sparring with Takashi everyday for a month and a half, and to him it was almost like Seichi was moving in slow motion. Naruto's mind was clear, he could see the straight right the brown haired boy intended for his face a mile away. It wasn't hard, the strike was completely telegraphed. He waited until Seichi was right up on him. The boy was smirking, believing he had caught his opponent flat-footed. Then, Naruto moved.

The instant before the punch connected he swayed to side, coiling and uncoiling his waist as he unleashed savage left hook. Seichi's punch flew over his left shoulder. His punch flew right into Seichi's face, with all his body weight and all of Seichi's momentum behind it. There was only one possible outcome. A 'CRACK!' rang out across the clearing, so fast and so loud it sounded more like a gunshot then a punch. One minute Seichi was about to land what he thought was a finishing blow, the next, he was horizontal, feet flying out from under him and head whipping back so hard and fast that he almost did a complete backflip before landing on the ground in a crumpled heap. Naruto didn't move. He stood over his fallen opponent, body still frozen in the follow through position of his strike. His eyes were narrowed as he looked down, not even deigning to look at the boy he had just laid out. Then he raised his head.

The looks on the faces of his fellow cadets would be one of his most cherished memories for years to come. They were in complete shock, every single one of them. Their eyes were wide as if they couldn't believe what they had just seen. More than a few had lost control of their jaws, gaping open mouthed at how the equivalent of the Reserves' 'deadlast' had completely owned one of the more competent trainees in less than a second.

"Winner, Namikaze!" Takashi said, and Naruto could tell that even though his face was sculpted into an impartial mask, his eyes held just a hint of what was unmistakably pride.

Standing victorious, the blond looked back at his downed opponent. The boy lay in an almost a fetal position. His nose was completely crushed as thick layers of blood flowed from the shattered facial feature and gathered in a growing red pool below his face. Seichi's eyelids were open, but his eyes had rolled back into his head leaving only the whites showing. Naruto hadn't just knocked him out, he had damn near knocked the boy into next week. It was obvious he would need immediate medical attention to avoid permanent damage. Naruto didn't care even a little bit.

'Serves the bastard right for underestimating me'. If there was thing Naruto hated, it was being looked down on and so far it had been a constant feature of his stint in the Reserves. He would have spit on the ground in front of the boy if he thought he could get away with it, but he knew that would be going too far. Instead, he rolled shoulders, cracked his neck and let out a condescending snort before moving back to his spot.

The proceeding fights were just as simple. Naruto wasn't really challenged, but he had decided to take Takashi's previous advice to heart. Some fights he completely demolished his opponent while others he held back, putting on a show of having a difficult time before pulling out a win. The reason was simple. It was easy to calculate strength and weakness, but much harder to calculate the unknowns in between. Or to put it simply, a confused opponent is much easier to defeat. There was only really one fight that he had actually had to work at so far.

Surprisingly, his opponent had been a kunoichi. Green eyes with black hair sticking out from under her bandana had made her relatively plain looks somewhat striking. The minute the fight had begun she had been on him, much like others had tried to do. The difference, was that she was actually good. Very good. In fact, Naruto was sure she had all but aced the taijutsu portion of the Academy exam. Her punches and kicks were text book form, but they were delivered with uncommon strength. However, it was her fluidity that had given him a problem.

Naruto ducked a lunged strike only for the girl's shin to crash into his forearms with enough force to knock him back a couple steps. The kick had been transitioned into so smoothly that if he had not been in the habit of keeping his guard up he would have had no chance of blocking it. He hopped back a bit, weaving away from her continued attack before firing back with a few strikes of his own. The punches were cleanly parried and the girl did not even hesitate for a second as she countered with a right hook that connected with the side of his face. It was a hard punch, damn harder than a girl had any right to be hitting which attested to her skill. Unfortunately for her, Naruto had been sparring with Takashi for weeks and being that he was a jounin, Takashi hit much, much harder. Still, she was keeping him on the defensive and that was not where he wanted to be.

He used his footwork to buy time, sidestepping and pivoting as he tried to come up with a plan. His opponent had been doing a good job with keeping him within punching and kicking distance, but the one time he had gotten inside her guard she had panicked a bit, quickly backing and hastily attacking to cover her retreat. She had clipped him so he had had no choice but to disengage at the time. 'That's her weakness, then. She's confident in striking distance but uncomfortable within grappling range'. The Academy taijutsu style had a grappling component, but it was taught to be used as a last resort. 'Gotcha bitch', he thought with a smirk.

Instantly he switched from evasive maneuvers to offense, interrupting the girl mid-combo. He slipped a punch, stepping inside her guard but catching a backfist for his trouble. The strike was too weak to do any real damage at such close distance however, and he ignored it as he wrapped his hands around in neck in a clinch while yanking her off balance. Her hands immediately went to his wrist, attempting to break his hold with a wrist lock but it was too late. Naruto viciously drove a knee strike straight into her ovaries and she collapsed like a sack of bricks. Groin shots and eye gouging were illegal as per the test rules despite the fact that Takashi often hit him where the sun don't shine during their spars. However, Naruto had struck her right above her groin and while it was still a sexual organ, the strike was technically legal.

The girl crumbled to ground, arms instinctively wrapping around her lower abdomen, but Naruto gave her no quarter. Without mercy he planted his foot on her chest and kicked her onto her back, hopping on top of her and cocking his fist back to deliver the finishing blow.

"Enough!" Takashi's voice boomed out over the training field. Naruto's fist froze where it was, and he climbed off the girl without a second thought.

"Winner, Namikaze!" the jounin said once again.

Naruto watched as the girl tried to climb to her feet before falling down on her knees again and clutching her stomach with a moan. Her eyes were screwed shut in apparent agony. He didn't feel bad because she was a girl. Takashi had drilled into their heads that gender had no meaning on the battlefield. A combatant was a combatant, an enemy was an enemy. However, he couldn't stop himself from feeling a measure of respect. The girl was good, and had given him a damn hard fight. Tougher than the rest of his matches combined. So as she cracked her eyes open to glare at him from the ground, Naruto did something unexpected. Looking right into her eyes he nodded at her and snapped off a quick two fingered salute. She was surprised, he could tell, but the pain overwhelmed any other emotions as she screwed her eyes shut with another moan.

"Get her to the medic," Takashi ordered while pointing at a relatively intact cadet that had lost his fight.

"Yes sir!" the boy said and immediately went at his task. Naruto shrugged, wiping a bit of blood from the corner of his mouth. 'Yea, a damn good fight...'

Finally, the moment had come that he had been waiting for. He stood across from his rival and arch-nemesis, Machida Odo. Both boys were dead serious. There were no words spoken, no taunts thrown at each other. They were beyond that; the only thing they both wanted was to pound the other boy into the ground. Takashi announced the fight.

"Last fight! Machida vs. Namikaze!" he said. Everyone on the side lines watched in silence. There was a chunk of cadets missing, having needed medical attention, but the rest observed with baited breath. Everyone knew the rivalry the two boys shared.

"Machida, are you read?" Takashi questioned. The boy only gave a ghost of a nod, hard eyes trained on the small blond in front of him.

"Namikaze, are you ready?" Naruto's response was exactly the same.

"Hajime!"

They were at each other immediately. Naruto threw a hard jab, cross, hook combo, collapsing the end of the hook into an elbow to tack on a camouflaged strike but Odo covered, letting the attack crash uselessly into his forearms as he kicked at the blond's stomach. It missed as Naruto was already moving, pivoting away after his elbow strike, leaving Odo uselessly kicking the air. They didn't even take a second to reset and continued to engage each other.

Odo threw a back fist before his foot even reached the ground, lashing out to the side where Naruto had dodged to. Naruto didn't even blink, knocking the punch aside with a parry and firing back with a straight right. Instead of trying to block it the large boy just leaned back, keeping his body completely sideways to his opponent and letting Naruto's fist come short of his face by a few inches before turning and burying a knee strike right in the blond's stomach while a looping overhand punch simultaneously smashed into his eye.

Both boys stumbled back, pausing to look at each other...for about half a second.

They crashed together in a flurry of blows, neither willing to retreat an inch. Naruto slipped another punch, doubling up on a left hook that jerked the larger boy's head back. Odo responded spinning of his heels, sending a reverse elbow strike at the blond's left ear. A split second was all Naruto had to react, but he managed to get his arm up to cover his head. The blow so strong it sent him stumbling anyway, slightly disoriented but still very much in the fight.

The other trainees were in awe. The two fighters were throwing their punches and kicks so fast their limbs looked like blurs. They flowed around each other, punching, kicking, blocking, parrying, slipping, countering, all of it so smooth it looked almost more like a violently choreographed dance than a fight. Naruto bobbed and weaved in between punches, sidestepping kicks while counterattacking the whole time. Odo blocked and covered in between his own shots, looking somewhat like he was playing a demented game of peek-a-boo as his hands flashed between his torso and his head. But Odo was also surprisingly good at parrying and dodging, too. Naruto absently mused that he would have had to get good, because even as big as the boy was there was no way he could go toe-to-toe with Takashi. Still, that left Naruto at a disadvantage, because the other boy's strength meant that he could only block as a last resort, while Odo had to spend less effort dipping and parrying only what he couldn't block.

Odo seemed to have come to that realization too, covering his head and rushing inside Naruto's guard. A large hand wrapped around the blond's neck and held him in a tight clinch, theirs heads touching together as Odo viciously pounded his other hand into the blond's ribs repeatedly. Naruto gasped as pain exploded across his rib cage only to get worse a second later as he felt something give. He grabbed at Odo's face, desperately pushing it back just enough to allow for him to slam his forehead into the boy's face with a nasty headbutt. Odo's grip weakened as his head snapped back but he didn't let go. Instead, he readjusted it and forced Naruto into a throw. If it was anyone else, it would have succeeded. But Odo had obviously learned the move from Takashi, and Naruto had been on the receiving end of it enough that he knew how to counter.

Muscle memory overrode pain as Naruto twisted in mid-air, landing on his feet and immediately jumping up to deliver a flying knee to Odo's already abused face. The ape like boy stumbled back but lashed out with a front kick to Naruto's chest, causing to blond to cry out in pain as he fell onto his back. Naruto's thoughts were moving a mile a minute. This was a war of attrition, and he was losing. He needed to do something to break the status-quo. It was all or nothing time.

He pulled himself to his feet, eyes never leaving his opponent. The boy stared back at him, blood trickling out of his nose and his left eye swelling shut. Naruto knew he didn't look any better, he had managed to avoid Odo's power shots but had caught more than a few stiff jabs. This was the longest break in the fight so far, and it didn't last more than two seconds before they were moving at each other once again.

'This is it', thought Naruto. He knew what he had to do, but it was so crazy only he would believe it would work. Odo came in with a straight punch, but Naruto brought his hands in front of his face in a half block, half parry. The punch slid across his forearms as the blond planted his foot in the other boy's stomach.

It wasn't a kick.

Naruto pushed off, launching himself into the air even as Odo realized what was happening and attempted to grab his legs. It was too late. The blond brought his legs all the way to his chest, before exploding into a merciless drop-kick, just like the one he had tried to hit Takashi with in their very first spar. Except this time, it connected. His heel's crashed into Odo's face and the older boy's head flew backwards so fast his legs stayed where they were for a second.

Naruto landed on the ground hard, pain engulfing his chest as his broken ribs protested their continued punishment. 'I...have to...get up' he thought, but his thoughts were clouded the fire in his chest. It was getting exceedingly hard to breath, but Naruto knew that if he didn't get up he would lose, one way or another. Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to his hands and knees, then to one knee, then finally he managed to climb to his feet, swaying unsteadily while holding his ribs. His eyes drifted to his opponent.

Odo was attempting to get up too, but he wasn't succeeding. His eyes rolled around in his head, and he patted the ground around him as if confused about where he was. He struggled, trying desperately to sit up, but his brain and muscles wouldn't cooperate. He collapsed back onto the ground, arms out the side as he lay spreadeagled in unconsciousness.

"Winner, Namikaze!" Takashi shouted, and Naruto surprised to hear a smattering of clapping and even a few whistles and cat-calls. He smiled a bit through gritted teeth. It seemed even if they didn't like him much, his peers could still appreciate a good fight. He looked over at Takashi, and this time the look of pride was unmistakable. He turned his eyes to grey skies above, watching the clouds for a moment as he basked in his victory. 'I did it...I really did it.'

xXxXx

Walking towards the back of the barracks where Naruto and Takashi held their daily sparring sessions, the young trainee couldn't help but reflect on what had transpired. After completing their ninjutsu and taijutsu portions of training. The group had moved on to battlefield tactics. The young Namikaze had proved surprisingly adept, often coming with out of the box ideas that surprised even Takashi. As such, he had scored among the highest out of all the cadets, and he had a feeling he might even be appointed team leader for their final exam. As he approached the area, he spotted Takashi, but he was not alone.

Another Reserve ninja was with him. A chuunin, judging by his flak vest. The two higher ranking ninja chatted quietly, each smoking a cigarette. Naruto's eyes were drawn to what was around the chuunin's neck. It was some sort of cord or rope, except it was covered in what looked like short strips of red, orange, and yellow tape. 'Wierd' he thought to himself. Takashi finally noticed him, or more likely chose to acknowledge him.

"No sparring today brat," he said simply before turning back the chuunin. Naruto nodded dumbly in surprise, turning to walk away but not before seeing the chuunin hand Takashi a scroll. 'Wonder what that was about.'

xXxXx

Naruto, was annoyed. He had accomplished much during his time in Basic Training, going so far as to be appointed team leader for their final test in the Reserves. But even though he had gained the respect of some of his peers, many had shown an even greater dislike for him after his skills became common knowledge. Unfortunately, his teammates seemed to fall into the later category.

"I don't have to listen to you, Namikaze! You think you're better than the rest of us but you're just an arrogant little punk!" Were the words of Sato Nobu, Naruto's most recent pain in the ass. It seemed like no matter what he said, the other boy was intent on opposing him.

"Listen," Naruto said as he tried to keep calm. Getting into a screaming match with his teammate would only make things worse, as much as he wanted to. So instead, he was doing something he wouldn't usually do, he was trying to reason with him. "We have to work together! We only have a four man team and we can't afford to waste time arguing!"

"You're right, I don't have time to waste with this shit. Screw you Namikaze, I don't need your help! I'll get this flag on my own!" With those parting words Nobu stomped away, his form disappearing behind a tree into the darkness of the night.

"Nice going captain," came the snide remark of one of his other teammates. The girl's name was Shimizu Ryoko, and while she wasn't openly oppositional like Nobu, her cold disdain and snarky comments had made it clear she didn't like him much, either. Naruto got the feeling that she almost wouldn't mind failing just to make him look bad. It was too bad, because in any other circumstances he would most certainly have found the redhead attractive. But in the short time they had been acquainted Naruto already found himself wanting to slap the bitch.

"Successful completion of this mission is unlikely without all four team members," his last teammate said as he spoke up. Hokkaido Minoru was, thankfully, much more professional than his teammates. He didn't seem to care that Naruto was team leader, but he also didn't seem like the type that cared about much of anything. Naruto was just grateful that he had one person on his team that was, if not cooperative, than at least neutral towards him. It still grated on him a bit that said person had about as much personality as a brick.

"Any more great ideas, Namikaze-sama."

Ryoko's mocking was really starting to get on his nerves, but having endured being belittled for almost the entire time he had been in the Reserves, he shook off the urge to clean her clock. Instead he turned back to exam their 'base'. It was little more than a small shack. Three sheets of metal composed the sides, while another sheet of metal was attached to the top as a roof. It was only three square feet across and five feet wide, with the center containing a red cloth attached to a stick. It was a classic game of capture the flag.

The idea was that each team would have to decide how they were going to go about capturing the other team's flag while guarding their own. There was really only three options: two people go to capture the other teams flag while two stayed behind to guard the base; three go out while one stays behind to guard, or one goes out while three stay behind. The other two choices, where the whole team left or the whole team stayed weren't even considered as it was almost certain failure. At least, that would be their options if they weren't already down one teammate.

Naruto looked down at his hip where his hands were absently fidgeting with his kunai pouch. The kunai they had been given were blunted, but they had also been dipped in a bright red dye that would show up on their fatigues even at night should they get hit. Contact with the head or the torso would be considered an immediate kill shot, and they knew that even though they couldn't see them there were chuunin proctors stationed around the forest to make sure everyone followed the rules of the exam.

The youngest Reserve trainee turned team leader brought his eyes back to the base. There was something about this whole thing, something he was missing that he couldn't quite put his finger on. A sigh escaped his lips. "This flag is too open. They know exactly where to look, seeing as they put the flags directly opposite each other. I wish there was someway we could move it". It was stupid in his opinion. While placing the flags randomly in the forest would have been harder, it would have been a lot more realistic. He didn't see why Takashi would do something like this.

"Weren't you listening? We can't take the flag out of the base or we lose, dumbass!" He ignored her, eyes still trained on the shack. "Ugh, we're wasting time! We only have two hours and the other team is probably already on their way!"

Naruto observed the top where the roof met the sides. They were attached by a thick black cord which looped it's way through the holes that ran along the edges of the metal sheets on all sides. His eyes narrowed as he looked at the ground. The sheets that made up the walls were secured to the ground with what looked like camp tent pins. 'Why the hell would they put these together so shoddily? It doesn't make any sense, unless..."

He walked into the base, ignoring his female teammate's cries of "What are you doing idiot?" and "I can't believe this!" as he sought what he was looking for. He found it. The black cord ended in a knot, tucked in the inside corner where the roof and the walls met. A quick glance at the other corners confirmed they had the same thing. He smiled as his eyes lit up in comprehension.

"I got it!" he announced to his teammates, cutting off Ryoko's rant.

"Got what, moron?"

The blond didn't let teammate's words affect him in the slightest. Instead he smiled, squinting his eyes and grinning wide with an expression so fox-like, that if one didn't know any better they would swear that he was the Kyuubi jinchuuriki and not his sister.

"Takashi said we can't move the flag out of the base," he said. "But, he didn't say anything about not moving base itself".

xXxXx

"We are so gonna get disqualified for this", Ryoko moaned. They had dismantled the shack and had carried the metal sheets to a position near some bushes almost a click away. It had been tricky, because they had to keep the flag squashed between the metal sheets the whole time lest they end up disqualified for removing it from what was technically still the base, but they had made it to their destination. Naruto had another bright idea along the way. Instead of reconstructing the base back the way it was before, they had dug out thin four and a half foot deep trenches and lowered the sides of the base into it. That left only a little more than half a foot sticking out above ground. He continued by hollowing out a little pit in the back for the flag, then packing dirt up around edges to conceal it.

Well, it was supposed to look like they were trying to conceal it, but that was just a ploy. Naruto had found out that Minoru was distinctly talented at constructing traps, and had been able to do so with only a bit of ninja wire, the only other tool they had besides the kunai. Anyone who stuck their hand in to retrieve the flag would find their hand stuck in the base. Permanently. Or until the exercise was over, at least.

"Ugh, finally," Ryoko groaned as they put the finishing touches on their newly relocated base by camouflaging it with leaves and shrubbery. They were all covered in dirt, and had been more than a little nervous about getting disqualified. They weren't exactly breaking the rules, but they were bending them. A lot.

Naruto wiped the dirt from his face with the inside of his sleave. "Okay, hard parts over. Now it's time for, um, the other hard part" he said, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment.

"Idiot" muttered Ryoko, but much of the heat that had been in her earlier insults seemed to have faded away.

Naruto ignored as her usual. "Right. So, we know where their base most likely is, unless they figured out the loophole like we did. We need to move fast though, because we don't know how they divided up their numbers. As much as I hate to say it we should probably try and avoid fighting while we move. We're already a man down and we don't know how many people are guarding their base. Our best bet is to stick close to the perimeter of the testing area so we can limit their possible angles of attack."

"That plan sounds adequate", said Minoru.

"Whatever", said Ryoko.

"Alright," said Naruto as he turned towards where he knew the edge of the testing field was. "Red Team, move out!"

xXxXx

They made good time, hopping along the trees near the fence that divided their training area from others taking their own exams. Luck was on their side and they ran into none of opposing team. As they neared the opposite end of their area, they curved back inward towards the middle, where they knew the base would be located. Naruto suddenly held up his hand making the gesture for 'Stop!'. He teammates froze on the branches they had landed on. Somewhere throughout the course of their mock mission they had started to truly defer to him as team leader, and Naruto would be lying if he denied that it made him feel pretty damn good. He motioned for them to come close to him quietly, and they did so.

"There it is, in the clearing just beyond those trees," Naruto whispered as he pointed. They all crept forward slowly, making sure to stay in the shadows and away from the moonlight that would expose them before they were ready. Peering into the clearing below them, which was exactly like the clearing their own base had formerly inhabited, they spotted Blue Team's flag guards.

"There's only two of them," whispered Ryoko.

"They have decided to split their team evenly. That is the safest option and most obvious choice," Minoru added, his voice monotone without any indication that he approved or disapproved of their decision. Naruto decided that now was probably not the best time to creeped out by his teammate so he just shook his head.

"Okay, this isn't a bad hand. We outnumber them, but there are still two others out there that we could run into on the way back. Besides, even though this is just a test, I still don't want to lose any more of my teammates".

"How thoughtful of you," was the female member of his team's sarcastic reply.

"Do you have a plan, Captain?" Minoru asked. Naruto decided that remark had just moved Minoru from the 'creepy list' to the 'you're still kind of creepy but I like you anyway' list.

"Yea...I do. Just charging out there and taking them head on would be stupid. We'll most likely win but not without taking casualties. So we should stack to the deck a bit, so to speak". He paused, gathering his thoughts before turning to his teammates again. "This is what we're going to do".

xXxXx

Naruto crept silently along the ground, crawling on his stomach through the dirt as he flanked Blue Team's base. His objective was near the back fence, which was located just behind the enemy's shack. The base was positioned so it stood about six feet in front of the fence, making it very hard to sneak up directly from behind. Too bad for Blue Team that wasn't Naruto's plan. Not exactly anyway. Instead he had maneuvered himself directly parallel to the base while still hiding behind the tree line. The trip had taken longer than it should have because he had crawled on his stomach, but it was basic stealth tactics to prevent the smallest profile possible to avoid detection. He had even caked dirt on his face and the backs of his hands to further lower his chances of being spotted. He looked out the two trainees guarding the flag. They were both a few meters in front of the base, each covering one side of the clearing.

'These guys,' Naruto thought to himself, 'are fucking retarded'. If tasked with guarding the flag in such an open territory, the smart thing to do would be to hide out and wait for the opposing team to enter the clearing, then ambush them either on their way in or on their way out. These two, or maybe Blue Team as a whole, had obviously come to the conclusion that in order for Red Team to get their flag, they would have to come into the clearing and engage them. However, they didn't seem to get that by being in the open they gave their enemies the advantage by allowing them to formulate a plan of attack. It was sad, and Naruto got the feeling that it was idiots like these that had earned the Reserves the reputation it had.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts. Now was not the time to speculate on why the other team did what they did, now was the time to capitalize on their mistakes. He waited until the boy guarding his side looked the other way, then stuck his hand out from his cover, exposing the still flesh colored bottom of his hand to the moonlight for a brief second. It would have been extremely hard to spot, if his teammates did not know the exact spot he was going to be at. He waited a moment. The loud sound a branch snapping in half was heard a moment later, and both guards jerked their heads towards the sound. Naruto smirked.

The Blue Team guard was bored. For the first hour he had been on edge, waiting for the Red Team seekers to attack them at any moment. Now he was beginning to think his other teammates might have taken them out already. He sighed in disappointment, wishing he had been chosen to capture the Red Team's flag. All this waiting around was making him restless. His inner grumblings came to a screeching halt, however, when the sound a breaking would echoed across the clearing. He and his teammate froze, heads snapping to the treeline on the left side of the clearing where the sound originated from. The other Blue Team guard looked back at him, then at the flag, before slowly making his way towards the edge of the clearing. As soon as he reached the trees, all hell broke loose.

Two Red Team trainees lept from the trees, attacking the boy that had been investigating the sound. The boy still guarding the flag made a move to help his teammate, but caught a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye. Another Red Team member burst from the treeline, his face and hands covered in grime leaving only his bright blue eyes clearly visible. The blue eyed boy gripped a red covered kunai in his hands. The guard was surprised, but despite his shock he managed to avoid the stab towards his chest, sidestepping and stabbing his own kunai into the Red Team trainee's chest for the kill shot...only for his blade to pass right through as the boy burst into smoke.

'Bunshin!' he realized in panic, but by the time he had registered that he had been fighting a clone it was too late. A pair of hands seized him from behind, running a blunted kunai across his neck and staining his throat red. The boy instinctively turned, only the catch the ring of the same kunai right in the forehead. Hard. After that there was only darkness.

Naruto watched as the boy crumbled in front of him. He wouldn't be getting up anytime soon. While it was technically unnecessary to knock him out, Naruto didn't want to take the chance of getting hit with a wild swing after the fact. He wasn't sure if there were any proctors watching them, and he had the feeling that getting hit would still hurt his score even if it wasn't official. The dirt covered blond looked over at his teammates to see them finish dispatching the second guard. He had put up a better fight than his teammate, but number disadvantage had defeated him in the end. Naruto wasted no time. He dashed into the base and retrieved the blue colored flag. "We're going back the way we came, move!" he ordered.

They dashed back along the perimeter double time, knowing that the quicker they got their flag back to their base the better their score would be. Naruto assumed they hadn't been disqualified because he hadn't seen a chuunin proctor yet. As they approached the base, they heard the sound of someone cursing. A boy was lying down on his stomach, one hand reaching into their base where the flag was. Apparently, he was stuck.

"Shit! What kind of shit is this?" he swore to himself.

Naruto felt it was only polite to answer his question. "It's a trap, dumbass", he explained calmly from the where he sat perched on the roof of the base. The other boys head jerked up in surprise at suddenly not being alone. "Good job, Minoru...uh, san" Naruto said as he complimented his robot like teammate. The blond rebel usually didn't care about formality or politeness, but he got the sense that he was being a little too familiar with his temporary teammate.

"Thank you, Namikaze-san," the aforementioned boy replied back, apparently unruffled by the lack of formality.

The Blue Team boy still stuck in the trap jerked his head around him, noticing that he was now surrounded by three members of Red Team. "You bastards!" the trapped boy screamed out at them, no longer worried about his screaming attracting attention. "You guys cheated! You weren't supposed to move the flag!"

"Hah, nah, we didn't cheat," Naruto explained, his cocky half smirk morphing into a self-satisfied full grin. "The rules said we couldn't move the flag out of the base. They never said we couldn't move the base itself, as long as the flag was still in it. Don't be mad that you guys were too dumb to figure it out", he finished with a laugh.

The boy started to thrash about, trying desperately to free himself from the ninja wire that entangled him. "You fucking bastard!" Naruto thought the kid really needed to expand his swear-word vocabulary. "I'll kill your cheating ass! You'll get disqualified for this!". Naruto ignored him, looking back at his other two teammates as the boy continued to rage at him.

"Sooo, who wants this guy?"

Ryoko spoke up. "I'll take him. Hokkaido here got the kill shot on the guy we double teamed."

Naruto turned his head to the blank faced boy. "That cool with you?"

"It is acceptable, Namikaze-san," Minoru added flatly.

"Creep," Ryoko muttered. Naruto silently agreed.

The redheaded Reserve cadet stalked over to the Blue Team seeker on the ground. "Hey, asshole..." she said, getting his attention as he stopped thrashing for a moment. He looked up at her with a sneer.

"What bit-OW!" his insult was cut short as he stomped on his arm, preventing him from drawing the kunai he had been reaching for with his free hand. With a simple motion she leaned down and ran a red painted kunai across his throat before hitting him in the temple with the ring. "...you're dead", she said, unnecessarily completing her sentence to unconscious boy.

Naruto just laughed. "Nice one!" he chuckled out before tossing the blue flag into their base. A red flair shot up into the air, illuminating the forest and signalling that the Red Team had won the match. A chuunin appeared from behind a tree, visible in the red glow. He was dressed exactly like they were only with a chuunin vest and an actual hitai-ate covering his head.

"Congratulations, Red Team wins". His voice sounded bored, but it wasn't monotone like Minoru's. "I see you guys figured out the loophole, not bad. My team figured it out too, but most of these Rezzie brats are too dumb to see it".

The older teen's voice was a bit more jovial now, but Naruto reflected a bit on the word Rezzie. He knew it was basically a derogatory term for 'Reserve Corps. ninja', but he had only heard Takashi and now this chuunin say it, and both of them were Reserve ninjas as well. The other slang term for Reserve ninjas was 'scarf-heads' which sounded even worse. Still, the chuunin didn't seem like he was saying it like he was insulting them, more like it was an inside joke.

Naruto's confusion was clear. "Uh, thanks. I guess."

The chuunin just smirked at him. "Alright, clear out. We have to get this ready for the next group."

"Sir!", Naruto said as he snapped out a crisp salute. His teammates did the same and they headed off back towards the barracks. The chain of command had been thoroughly explained to them all by Takashi. The highest ranking ninja present was always treated as the Commanding Officer, and any ninja of a higher rank was to be treated with the same respect. If they gave you orders, you followed them unless they undermined the direct orders from a higher ranked officer. It was a bit more complicated than that, but the basic gist of it was anyone who had the authority to give you orders was to be shown the same respect as your CO. Normally a chuunin would not get that kind of respect, even if they were team-captain on a squad of genins. But the Reserves were different. Chuunin in the Reserves were somewhat of a rarity. The mandatory conscription was three years, and there was no 'Chuunin Exams'. Most Reserve ninja started and finished as genin. The only way to gain a new rank was via battlefield promotion, which meant that for someone to be promoted to chuunin they had to have done something to really earn that rank.

At the edge of the field they passed by a group of trainees that had been disqualified by a 'kill shot'. Naruto noted that Nobu was among them. 'Heh, serves the bastard right'.

"Namikaze," his female teammate, now ex-teammate's voice drifted over to him.

"Yea?"

"That was...pretty good going out there. You're still a prick, though."

He laughed a bit at that. "Thanks."

As the three cadets made their way into the barracks, Naruto felt for the first time that maybe, things wouldn't turn out so bad after all.

xXxXx

The caravan rolled along at a sedate pace. And Namikaze Naruto was fucking bored.

The recruits had passed all the necessary tests to become a genin, but there was one final tasked that needed to be accomplished. Most genin had to graduate to become eligible to take missions. The Reserves were no exception, except, for a single instance. It was tradition that the Reserve trainees would accompany their jounin instructor for a simple mission just to get the feel of it. They would be awarded their official hitai-ates upon their return to base. It was supposed to a be a perk, something special that was unique to the Reserves. Naruto just thought it was boring as hell.

'Damn, why can't something exciting happen? Like a bandit attack or something.' he grumbled to himself. He knew it would never happen though, they wouldn't have taken them on this mission if an attack was likely seeing as they hadn't even officially graduated yet. Instead, they were stuck pointlessly escorting a caravan to a town three days outside of Konoha. Most wouldn't even hire ninja guards for such a short trip within Fire Country, except that they were actually headed away from where most people traveled. Their destination lay to the west of Konoha, heading away from the Elemental Countries. Still, they were not leaving the border of Hi no Kuni, so the danger was minimal. They even had another chuunin with them as an added precaution.

The hours passed by slowly. He played with a kunai, flipping it in the air and catching it then twirling it in the palm of his hand. Naruto wasn't tired from all the walking, his superb conditioning assured that, but he was mentally tired from the sheer monotony. He couldn't wait for the day's travel to be over with. He had been sharing a three-man tent with Ryoko and Minoru. Even though they hadn't spoken much since the final exam, they were the people he was most comfortable with out of all his peers. He smirked as he remembered how Ryoko threatened them both with bodily harm should they have any intentions towards her body. 'Like I want to get with a snobby bitch like her' he snorted in thought, though the animosity wasn't really sincere.

He flipped the kunai into the air, but it dropped to the ground as the sound of commotion reached his ears. A man burst from the treeline on to the road. His face was dirty and unshaven and the clothes that hung off of his body were little more than rags. He growled, a bloody sword in his hands as his eyes shown with a desperate madness.

'What the fu-'

Naruto's training with Takashi was the only thing that saved him. The man rushed forward as the young boy was frozen in shock, lashing out at the blond with a decapitating strike that should have connected but his instincts all but forced him to roll under it. He rolled into a crouch, turning around to see the man take another swipe at him from above. A kunai flashed into his hand and the sound of metal hitting metal followed an instant later. Naruto had stopped thinking, his body was moving on autopilot. He slid the sword off to the side with kunai before sliding forward and sending a round punch to the man's temple with all his strength. The man's head whipped to the side, his feet staggering back to keep his balance before they finally gave up as the man collapsed onto his back, unconscious.

Naruto's eyes darted left and right. All around him he heard the sounds of battle. More men had emerged from the treeline. The Reserve trainees had been shocked, but they outnumbered their attackers almost three to one. He could see Takashi's blurred form moving from enemy to enemy, leaving blood spraying into the air in his wake. Out of the corner of his eyes he caught of flash of red hair going to the ground, and he looked over just in time to see another bandit preparing to bring his sword down on his defenseless ex-teammate.

"Ryoko!" His body was moving before he consciously told it to. The kunai flew out of his hand, tearing across the distance faster than he had ever experienced. The man wielding the sword looked up, only to be hit with something so hard he was knocked back a step. It took him a second to realize that something was kunai and it was lodged in his throat. The man gurgled in shock, tearing the blade out of his throat in panic and sending a shower of blood drenching the kunoichi-in-training below him as he bled out. She was stock still, eyes wide open in horror. And so was Naruto.

He was frozen, hand still in the follow through position for throwing a kunai. The sounds of battle began to grown distant, fading out until he couldn't hear anything besides his own heartbeat. He lowered his hand slowly, instinctively going for another kunai, but he couldn't seem to get it into his hand. He distantly wondered why that was, only to realize belatedly that he was shaking. The battle was nearing its conclusion, the surviving attackers, 'Bandits' he thought blankly, were retreating back into the trees. Those not fast enough were ended by Takashi's blade.

But Naruto didn't move. He stayed in the same spot, staring and the pool of blood that was beginning to surround body of the man he had killed. There was a lot of blood. A whole lot of blood. He didn't know the human body contained that much blood. He absently wondered just how much blood the human body actually contained.

"Namikaze." The voice was hard, but it wasn't deep enough to be Takashi's. Naruto turned to speaker as if in a dream. The serious face of Machida Odo stared back at him.

"Namikaze," he repeated again. "Are you hit?"

Naruto stared at him for a moment as if he didn't recognize who was talking to him, before he shook his head slightly. "...no" he answered, swallowing in an attempt to keep the bile from rising up into his throat.

"Good" said Odo, before he stepped away from the blond towards where a small group of trainees had gathered around Takashi. The were looking at something, a few of them turning away a moments later just to vomit up whatever had been in their stomachs. Naruto looked back towards Ryoko. Her wide eyes didn't look like they had even blinked in the past ten minutes, but she was being helped off the ground by a few cadets.

He shook his head again, trying to clear it. His feet began moving towards where Takashi was standing. He didn't know if it was because he was curious about what was going on or if he was just scared, but he moved regardless. As he approached the group he heard the jounin call out orders.

"Quit standing around and secure the clients! That's an order!"

The trainees flinched back as if struck, but quiet "Yes sir"s could be heard coming out of their mouths. For the first time in a long time Naruto ignored an order given by Takashi. The jounin had his back turned, staring at the something on the ground in front of one of the carts. Naruto's ears finally registered a sobbing sound, and he wondered if one of the trainees had been hurt. The closer he got to the cart, the heavier the knot forming in his stomach seemed to get. When he was right behind the jounin, he peeked out from behind him. All the color drained from his face in an instant.

It was Minoru. He lay slumped against the cart, eyes open but unseeing in death. He had been bisected, the cut going from shoulder hip clean through. A young woman sat on the cart sobbing. It was clear that he had been protecting her. He had paid for it with his life. Minoru still gripped a kunai in his left hand, but it was slightly farther away from his body then it should have been, because his body had split in half, shifting just a enough that Naruto could see a clean cross section of his insides. He couldn't take it. Naruto tore his eyes away from the scene and managed a single step away before everything he had eaten for the emptied onto the ground.

Takashi ignored the retching sounds coming from behind him. There was no mockery in his thoughts about the display of squeamishness. It was probably the first time any of them had seen death, both of an enemy and a comrade. It was a truly traumatic experience, and it was doubly so when the person had been sleeping right next to you the night before. The jounins eyes were hard and grim, and he seemed detached from the situation, but any who truly knew him knew otherwise. He was furious. No, he was beyond furious, he was absolutely murderous.

'What a fucking mess' he thought in disgust. In all the years of the Reserve Corps., there had never been a fatality on the graduation mission. Now he had two. Another boy had been found with an arrow sticking out of his eye socket a little ways away. Two other trainees were critically injured, one stabbed through the stomach and another now missing his left arm. Their intel had been wrong. A voice in the back of Takashi's head whispered that it was a setup, but he recognized it as the paranoia that accompanied his age and rank in his profession. Even if the Reserves didn't get along with the other side of Konoha's ninja forces, he knew better than to think they would try and get a bunch of snot-nosed brats killed. Besides, these men had been after the cargo. They had a half-starved look about them, and anyone who attacked a contingent of over fifty ninjas, even if they were just trainees, with so little men was either suicidal or very desperate.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a cigarette box, sliding out a single smoke and lighting it with practiced ease. The tip glowed bright orange as he took a slow drag, sucking the smoke into his lungs and pausing for a second, before letting it escape his mouth in a thick cloud.

Most of the trainees had reacted instinctively, debilitating their opponents with pure taijutsu rather than killing them. It was understandable, seeing as they had been caught completely off guard and reacted with what they knew best. He was sure that if they had known they would likely see action, there would be a lot more corpses on the ground. A few, like the young Namikaze, had actually slain an enemy. Takashi shook his head in annoyance. His chuunin had been killed while protecting a couple cadets that had frozen up. His back was riddled with arrows but, the bodies of four bandits around him proved that he had fought till the end. More importantly, the three trainees with tear filled eyes huddled around his body showed that he had accomplished his goal. There was no such thing as a good death, but this was as close to one as Takashi could think of. The teen had proven his rank and his courage and the jounin could only approve. Still, his anger continued to smolder. The man's thoughts drifted back towards the message he had received a few weeks earlier, and he couldn't help but wonder if these kids had been born under a bad star. He flicked his cigarette a bit too hard and it broke, snapping in half near the filter. Grimacing in annoyance he threw it on the ground and crushed it out with his heel. 'Someone's gonna pay for this shit...'

xXxXx

The Reserve trainees, were no longer trainees. Each of them stood in one of five rows, a black Konohagakure hitai-ate covering their foreheads and hair. Their faces were somber and serious. A few had eyes that were red-rimmed, but all of them had a hard look about them reflecting their understanding of what they had gotten themselves into. Their ceremony, which would normally take place in the training field where they had perfected their skills, was instead taking place in front of the KIA Wall. Takashi stood facing them all, hands clasped behind his back just like theirs were.

"Today, you are all hereby recognized as full-fledged ninja of the Konohagakure no Sato. When you first came here, you were unformed. Some of you were angry, some of you were arrogant, all of you were disappointed, all of you were naive." The jounin spoke in his gritty, commanding voice as he eyed down the newly promoted genin. Unlike when they had first arrived, not a single one of them looked away. He continued. "You have all been pushed to your limits. You have striven, day in and day out, to hone your bodies, sharpen your minds, and bleed out your weaknesses. You have been shaped in the crucible of training, and forged in the trial of combat."

Takashi paused for moment, letting his words wash over the assembled young ninjas before starting the last part of his speech. "Some of you have killed. All have lost a comrade. All of you standing here today, have survived the fire of battle before you had even received your headband." Again he paused for dramatic effect, and he watched as some of the genin's eyes hardened even further.

"So I ask you. Now, as you are truly coming to realize what it means to be a ninja, will you let your resolve falter?"

"No, sir!" Takashi looked down at the single voice that had answered his question. The eyes of Namikaze Naruto stared back at him. Others, realizing that he was actually expecting an answer, began to chime in. Takashi let a ghost of a smirk creep onto his face.

"Will you shy away from your duties? Will you ignore the needs of your village?"

"No sir!" This time, every single genin responded without hesitation.

"Will you dishonor your fallen comrades, those you knew and all those whose names look out at you from the wall behind me?"

"No sir!" There voices were rising, building up from what had already been a loud shout to something even more powerful.

"Or will you stand strong, facing the trials that lie ahead of you, doing what needs to be done even when it seems impossible, even if it takes your very life to accomplish it, like ninjas of the Reserve Corps., like true genin of Konohagakure?"

"SIR, YES SIR!" Their answer was less like a response and more like the sound of thunder. Naruto felt the words tear out of his throat with a roar, joining with the energy of the forty plus trainees standing around them. It was so violent that the trees around them erupted in a flurry of movement as birds frantically took to the sky.

Takashi looked down on them once again, unable to restrain a satisfied smile. He would bet they had heard his genin all the way in Konoha proper. "Then you finally deserve to call yourselves ninja. Tomorrow you will receive your orders. Until then you are free to do whatever you like. You can head back into town or use the time to rest. You've all earned it. Dismissed!"

They shouted in acknowledgement, though most of their voices were a little horse. As the crowd began to move back to barracks, Naruto instead moved towards the KIA Wall. He stopped right in front of the two newest additions, but only looked at one.

Hokkaido Minoru

He traced his fingers over the engraving, a sense of wrongness invading him in that moment. It was just so wrong. Sure, Minoru had been kind of creepy, but he had been alive. He had had a family, and been good at making traps, and called Naruto captain, and...And now he was just a name. Another name on a slate grey wall. "I'm sorry," Naruto whispered. He wasn't sure what he was apologizing for. Maybe for thinking he was creepy when Minoru had been a kid just like him, or maybe just for the fact that he was alive while the other boy was not.

His hand slid down and he stepped away from the wall, walking slowly back towards the barracks with his hands in his pockets.

"Naruto."

His head shot up in surprise. No one had called him by his personal name the whole time he had been in the Reserves. The blonds eyes snapped up to see a familiar redhead leaning against the wall of the barracks. As soon as he saw her, she began walking his direction. She stopped in front of him, looking him dead in the eyes. He stared back at hers, watching as emotions wildly flickered through the light brown orbs.

"I just wanted to thank you...for saving my life", she said at last.

Naruto scoffed. "You don't have to thank me-mphmp" His words were cut off as she grabbed the front of his fatigues and pulled him into a deep kiss. His eyes went wide with shock, but she didn't pull away, and he found himself relaxing into it. Finally she broke the kiss, pulling her lips away and wiping her chin with the back of her hand as she stepped back. When she spoke, her voice was back to her usual snobbish tone. "Don't go getting the wrong idea or anything Namikaze, this isn't going to happen again."

Naruto watched as she walked away, still in a bit of a daze over what had happened. He touched his lips absent mindedly. Naruto had heard, mostly just from girl gossip he happened to be privy to because of his sister's friends, that a first kiss was supposed magical. An act devotion to someone you were in love with. This kiss had nothing to do with love, though it had been full of many other emotions. Anger, fear, regret, relief, and more than a bit of gratitude. It had been more a desperate act of release than anything else. But it had been real. And Naruto thought, in a moment of bittersweet reflection, that maybe that made it much more special.

xXxXx

"You wanted to see me, sir?" Naruto was still confused from his early 'conversation' with Ryoko. And it hadn't gotten any better when he heard Takashi wanted to talk to him.

"Sit." The jounin said as he gestured to the seat in front of his desk. Naruto had never been in his office. In fact, he hadn't know the man even had an office until a few minutes ago. The room was pretty spartan, just a small office with a small desk and a bookshelf in the back. Naruto couldn't really see it clearly, because the only light was from the desk lamp on Takashi's desk. It was kind of weird, actually.

"Um, sir, do you want me to, ah, turn on the lights?" he asked.

"Shut up and sit down, Namikaze."

"Yes sir" Naruto replied, though his nervousness clearly showed through. This was starting to look like a cheesy yaoi manga of the shota variety. Takashi glared at him before putting his mind at ease.

"I know what you're thinking so stop being an idiot, brat. I just don't like those goddamn halogen lights blaring in my face while I drink."

Naruto tried not to let his relief show visibly as he sat down across from his commander but failed miserably. Luckily, Takashi only let out a snort of amusement. The jounin brought a bottle and two saucers out from a drawer in his desk and placed them on top of it, then uncorked the bottle and filled both saucers up with a clear liquid. He took one saucer for himself, then placed the other in front of Naruto. "Drink," he said.

Naruto floundered as he tried to understand what was going on. "Uh, sir. I know you're my CO and all, but I'm pretty sure I'm underage."

Takashi only fixed him with a flat stare. "You know that headband you have wrapped around your head? It marks you as having all the rights and privileges as an adult, as per Konoha law."

The blond made of face of puzzlement. He had never heard of that. Takashi read his face and answered his unasked question. "It's a bit of an open secret. Konoha doesn't want a bunch of teenage alcoholics in their ninja force, so they keep it pretty hush-hush. Most elite genin are clan nins anyway, so their family regulates that sort of thing." It went unsaid that Naruto's family would be regulating him if he wasn't in the Reserves. Still, he hesitated.

Takashi let out a sigh as he massaged his eyes. "Listen, it's not everyday you kill a man for the first time and lose a friend in the same instance. Drink." He watched the emotions flash across the young genin's face. Fear and terror and sadness, everything he had been suppressing since the engagement came rushing back even though Takashi could tell the boy was trying to hold it in. Finally, Naruto reached out a took the saucer, raising it to his mouth as Takashi raised his own.

Naruto let the clear liquid wash over his tongue before swallowing it. It burned as it went down his throat, and Naruto tried his best not to cough. Instead he grunted like he was clearing his throat, already feeling a bit of warmth spreading through his body and dampening the chill that had been with him since he had seen Minoru's body. They both sat in silence for awhile, Naruto lost in his own thoughts while Takashi waited patiently. Finally the young Namikaze boy spoke.

"He wasn't my friend...not really", Naruto admitted, swallowing as emotions began to bubble within him. "But, he was the first one acknowledge me, and...he didn't deserve that" he finished. Angrily he rubbed his eyes, feeling them beginning to tear up but refusing to let the tears fall.

Takashi said nothing about it, merely refilling the cups and lighting a cigarette. He took a deep drag before he responded, smoke escaping his mouth as he talked. "No one that young ever does. But this is the way of things in our profession. It's very likely that you'll be doing the same thing to someone else soon."

His words felt like a premonition, or a prophecy. Naruto looked down at his saucer, nearly entranced by how the clear liquid within reflected the warm, dim light of the lamp. Without a second thought he wrapped his fingers around it and swallowed his second cup as Takashi did the same. Now that he knew what to expect he was able to hold down the urge to cough again. Instead, he let the bitter aftertaste roll around in his mouth as warmth spread throughout his body. He looked up at Takashi who was calmly smoking his cigarette.

"Can I try that?" he asked.

The jounin gave him a hard look, but handed over the cigarette anyway. The boy studied it for a second before popping it in his mouth and inhaling deeply, only to promptly explode into a violent coughing fit.

"What the" cough, "hell?" cough cough, "How do you" cough, "enjoy these things?" he gasped out.

Takashi chuckled and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "Virgin lungs". He smirked at the still coughing preteen. "You get used to it. It has a calming effect on me."

Naruto considered it for a second while staring at the tobacco stick suspiciously, before gingerly placing it back in his mouth and taking a much smaller drag. It made him cough again but not as hard.

"That's enough brat. I only have two more and I think I've introduced you to enough vices tonight."

Naruto handed the cancer stick back to him without a second thought. He was quiet again for a moment, before he asked Takashi the question that had been on his mind the whole time. "Why are you doing this for me?" His words weren't slurred but they were coming out slightly slower due to the pleasant haze starting to envelope his mind. "Some of the other genin had kills too, but you're not doing it for them."

"You're right," Takashi said as he leaned back, but he didn't elaborate any further. Naruto wasn't that smart, but he wasn't stupid either. After a few seconds he realized what Takashi was implying. The jounin was doing this for him because he was, well, him. Because they shared a bond. Maybe not as close as an elite genin and their jounin sensei, but a bond forged through training nonetheless. The blond thought it was strange, seeing this more...human side of the man that had seemed to be the devil incarnate during his time in Basic Training. Strange, but nice. He wondered if this was the way regular genin felt about their jounin sensei's all the time. 'This sake is making me mushy' Naruto thought to himself, before holding out his saucer for Takashi to refill.

Takashi looked at him in amusement. "Last one brat," he said as he refilled both their saucers. They raised their glasses, clinking them together before downing the whole thing. Takashi looked at Naruto, noting the flush that had crept onto his features. The boy was definitely tipsy but not enough that he would have a hangover in the morning. If he stopped now at least.

Naruto let the alcohol settle in for a moment, before standing up. He stumbled a bit, having to reach out and grasp the desk to steady himself before regaining his balance. He looked down, shuffled his feet, then brought his eyes back to Takashi's. "Thanks for...everything, sir," he said.

Takashi merely waved him off. "Bah, whatever. Get some rest Namikaze, that's an order."

Naruto snapped into an almost crisp salute. "Sir!"

Takashi watched the boy as he walked out of his office only half as steady as he walked in. He stared at the empty door for a long moment after the blond was gone, then grabbed the bottle and filled up his saucer. The boy might have had enough, but he certainly hadn't. Not with what he was going to have to do tomorrow. He reached back into his desk and retrieved what he was looking for. It was a message scroll, one that contained his orders. He had already read it but he felt the need to read it again one more time.

For: Reserve Corps. Jounin Minahara Takashi

Document: Deployment Release

Our Daimyo, Lord of the Hi no Kuni, requests the aid of Konohagakure no Sato in resolving the escalating conflict on the western border of Fire Country. A supplementary force of 500 Genin is to be added to the combined forces 1500 Samurai and addition Mercenary Contractors. Jounin Minahara, you are the best the Reserve Corps. has to offer and we request the Genin that have been trained by the best. Your Genin will ship out 0500 hours the day after they receive their official Konohagakure hitai-ate. Your service to your village is greatly appreciated.

- Konohagakure Reserve Corps. Mission Control Office

Takashi gulped down the sake in his glass while glaring down at the scroll so hard it looked like he was trying to set it on fire with his eyes. His most recent trainees were a damn good batch. A few of them had more potential than he had seen in a long time. But they weren't ready for this. Not even close. However, orders were orders no matter how much he wished otherwise.

He let out a tired sigh as he leaned back in his chair while massaging his eyes. 'We're all going to hell'. Takashi kept drinking, and he didn't stop.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Wooooooooo! Holy shit, it's back! I really, really hope this was worth the wait. I definitely think it's one of the best chapters I've ever written. This is the farthest I've ever gotten in a fic, not chapter wise, but plot wise. From here on out the real action begins. If you ever wanted to see Naruto become a complete, grade-A capitalized BadAss in a completely realistic way then stay tuned.

For those of you worrying about Ryoko being a major part of the story, don't worry she won't be. Well, not in the way you're thinking anyway (cackles evilly). From here on out this story will earn it's M rating in spades. Dark waters ahead peeps. Hopefully now that I'm out of school and unemployed, I should be able to get this going more consistently because all I have to do is meditate, train and write. And for all of you worrying about the obscene amount of OC's, well..

spoilerspoilerspoilerspoiler spoilerdon'tworrybecauseallmyOC'stendtodieoffusuallyinpartic ularlygruesomewaysendspoiler endspoiler

OC's are cool and all (not really), but like I said up top, I know who we all want to see (besides Naruto). The following chapters will all feature appearances by the Namikaze household and the Rookie 9, Tsunade, Jiraiya, etc. and yes, Naruto will eventually interact with them consistently. The OC's are just there to move the plot along, nothing more.

One more thing. Please don't fav me if you're not even going to let me know why. Thanks, i'm out.

-Z